Design principles to choose the right ideas

(via Maia Garau)

By Henk Wijnholds Monday October 26, 2009

Often people ask me how we know which ideas to choose from all the hundreds of ideas we’ve generated during brainstorm sessions. Apart from our gut feelings and experience there’s a method that could help us decide, define design principles.

In the past we used to call these principles ‘design criteria’ until I came across this great article about ‘Ubiquitous Computing Workshop: Mobile User Experience Design Principles‘ by Rachel Hinman back in 2007.

What are design principles

Design principles describe the experience core values of a product or a service. They should be written in a short and memorable way. As a designer you should know them by heart while doing a project. Good design principles are cross-feature but specific. Therefore we should always try harder than ‘Easy-to-use’. Design principles are non-conflicting.

Google’s design principles that contribute to a Googley user experience

1. Focus on people – their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people’s trust.
10. Add a human touch.

Read more here.