Our Design Principles

Applying York St John University’s design principles to our digital platforms

A new brand

In early 2019 York St John University updated its brand. As part of this process 3 design principles were identified to help guide creative decisions when talking about the University, its people and its services.

As these principles guide almost every decision we make as a team we wanted to take the time to talk about them here.

· Inclusive: our communications should be accessible to everyone

· User-centred: our design choices and content should support users to meet their needs

· Ethical: our content should be clear, fair and not misleading.

You can read more about these design principles and other brand components on the YSJ brand microsite.

Inclusive

As a team we are passionate about inclusivity and accessibility.

It is part of the University mission statement that we want to create educational opportunities for all. This commitment starts from the first moment people encounter us. Our digital platforms must be open to everyone.

One of the ways we are making the website more inclusive is through our use of language. We have invited the Plain English Campaign to speak with our teams and we are creating a style guide to help staff write accessible content.

User-centred

Adopting a user-centred approach means that we always try to put the needs of the user first. This involves doing a lot of research into how our site is used, what users are looking for and what questions our audience are asking.

Our content should tell people what they need to hear, not what we want to say. Before we create a new piece of content we always ask ourselves ‘what is the user need we are hoping to satisfy?’ Having a clear understanding of our users’ needs puts us in good position to respond to them.

A user-centred approach is not just about content. It also guides the development of the site structure. We have grouped topics and tasks as our audience expects to find them and tried to anticipate where they will need to go next.

We want it to be as easy as possible for people to find information and achieve their goals. Through constant testing, research and improvement we can make using our website a seamless and enjoyable experience.

Ethical

You have probably encountered unethical web design before. You might have seen examples of ‘confirm shaming’ where websites use language to bias you into choosing an option they prefer. Or you might have come across some of these dark patterns, such as being automatically charged once a free trial ends.

Our users could be distracted, in a hurry, coping with difficult private lives, worried about money, or dealing with any other myriad contexts people find themselves in. Our users are human and we need to treat them as such.

An ethical approach to digital design does not mislead or confuse, it treats users fairly, and does not reinforce or contribute to harmful stereotypes.

Our ethical approach has influenced how we present important information on the website. It has informed how we implemented our cookie policy to protect the privacy of our users and how we trained our chat bot to respond to sensitive questions. We are always trying to be aware of our own biases and how they influence the design choices we make.

You can expect to hear us refer to these design principles a lot as we talk about the work that we are doing. We are always striving to become a more inclusive, user-centred and ethical team.

Photographs in this piece are by Tracey Hocking and Maarten Deckers and were found on Unsplash.com.