Purpose of Design Principles

Week 3
Introduction
• Design principles are a great way to build a shared understanding of
what good looks like for a product and service.
• They can help everyone to think about design; can help a team to stay
on the right design path and can provide a springboard for innovation
• Build a shared understanding of what design looks like, but can be
utilised when evaluating designs. Rather than asking, ‘is this a good
design?’
• A team can ask, ‘is this a good design in relation to our design
principles?’. With multiple designs it’s possible to ask, ‘which of these
designs is more closely aligned to our design principles?’.
Why Design Principles
• Design principles help everyone to think about design
• Provide guidance and highlight important considerations for designers and non-designers alike.
• Design principles are especially useful for new starters to a company or team.
• Design principles help to steer a design
• Helps to guide and steer a design throughout the design process. At each point of the process it
should be possible to consider and review a design in the context of a shared set of principles.
• Principles can also help to determine when a design is ready for release and to inform success
metrics to track.
• Design principles help to drive innovation
• Design principles can be an excellent springboard for innovation.
• For example by forming the nucleus of ‘How might we…’ ideation sessions. We might ask, ‘How
might we… create a better conversation with our users’ or, ‘How might we… create a more
welcoming experience’?