Our design principles and how they shape our thinking
Design principles are something every designer uses whether they know it or not. There are lots of underlying principles baked into most of the UI or UX decisions we make every day. However, design teams will often need to define a more specific set of principles that align closely with their product and business goals. A great resource for digging into design principles for different products and services is https://principles.design/.
A few years ago, after digesting a podcast and supporting article, about product principles, from the team at Intercom, it was clear that we needed to document our own design principles that were aligned with the design team’s goals and the goals of the business. We’d find the same themes bubbling up to the surface during design crits and conversations with stakeholders and colleagues. We’d reference strategies, goals and shared visions of what we wanted to achieve and how we wanted to achieve it. We began the process of identifying these patterns and using them to inform and define our own set of design principles.
Our design principles
1. Understand and empathise
Work hard to deeply understand our customer’s needs and consider their stress cases. Ego is the enemy, leave it at the door. The customer should be at the heart of every UX/UI decision you make.
Why it’s important
Empathise is step one of design thinking for a reason. We can’t possibly expect to solve our customer and business problems without fully understanding ‘the why’.
How we use it?
This one comes up in most design reviews. When we get too focussed on ‘the how’ and we’re getting lost in type sizes, vertical spacing, icons used etc, someone will usually bring us back down to earth with “What problem are we actually solving?”. This simple question helps refocus the conversation, allows designers to give more useful feedback and exposes if the problem isn’t fully defined or understood at a product level.
2. Don’t make me think
Above all else, our products must be clear and easy to use. Sacrifice elegance to achieve clarity, if required. Always make it clear to the user where they are and what they can do next. Obvious always wins.
Why it’s important
We’re all big Steve Krug fans in the product team, so this is one we’re all comfortable with. Buying a car online is complicated, and we have to pass the customer from system to system. It’s crucial that our customers don’t get lost, frustrated or worse still rage-quit out of the journey altogether.
How we use it?
When designers on different squads are joining up the customer experience, we stay mindful of ‘the reservoir of goodwill’ and we are always aware that parts of the journey require the customer to think more than others. Because of this, we apply the ‘don’t make me think’ principle to every other interaction and keep the flow as frictionless as possible.
3. Consistent but flexible
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Use our shared design language, UI components and UX design patterns where possible. When we need to solve new problems, our approach must be consistent. We share ownership of our design system and resources which are always evolving.
Why it’s important
We need our products to be consistent in visual grammar, UX writing and at a component level. This means that our customers will feel comfortable with any of our products. They will feel secure that they are interacting with us and they will be familiar with how our experiences work i.e progressing through tasks or searching for products.
How we use it?
During design reviews, we’ll first identify whether a component or pattern already exists for the problem a designer is solving. Then we’ll encourage the use of what’s already in the design system. If the component or pattern doesn’t quite work for the specific problem, then we’ll look at how we can extend what’s there already instead of making something new.
4. It’s what you ship that matters
What’s in your Figma file doesn’t matter, it’s what’s shipped that’s important. Relentlessly pursue your vision and make the right concessions to get your product out there. When butting-up against technical or business constraints, use the sliding scale of giving a f*ck and if need be, disagree and commit.
Why it’s important
We can have the most pristine and beautiful prototype, with transitions and animations that Zander Whitehurst would be envious of. But if it doesn’t reflect reality it remains aspirational. That’s why it’s not until your design is consuming data from actual customers and being used in the wild that it becomes ‘real’.
How we use it?
We recently moved from Sketch to Figma and as part of that, we introduced some ways of working, closely modelled on the Spotify ways of working. Part of this includes keeping a ‘spec file’, which reflects the live product. This keeps our jumping-off point accurate and helps keep designers mindful of where the live product is at. Nothing makes it into the spec file until it’s live. We work very closely with the engineering team to ensure our design and our vision is implemented to a level that we are happy with. But, we get it, it’s not always possible for things to go 100% our way as a designer, so concessions are often made during the build and things can change, but these changes will get back-filled into the spec file.
5. Drive design with hypotheses
Look for insight everywhere and know why you are changing something or adding something to your product. Decide early what success looks like then gather data on your solution from every source possible.
Why it’s important
Blindly adding features because we can, or because we want to, isn’t the best thing for our customers. We have lots of sources of data to garner insight from and lots of opportunities to make our products better.
How we use it?
We have various tools at our disposal to ensure we’re having a positive impact on our customer experience. On our customer-facing and high-traffic products, we use A/B testing to see what outcome our designs have on a specific metric. We use Lean UX Canvas to stay mindful of the customer and business outcomes we want to achieve. In short, we make sure we have an understanding of why we’re changing or adding something and the desired outcomes.
What next?
Our design principles are always evolving. We’ve gone from seven to four then back up to five again. We’ve tweaked them and changed their priority. They will never be ‘finished’ and we’ll regularly review whether they are serving us well or holding us back. We have a wider digital team goal to define harmonious product and engineering principles that work together in helping us build industry-leading products.
