Design Principles
Design principles are one of those deliverables, like personas, which get thrown around a lot and are often misunderstood or misused. When done poorly, they become empty platitudes that make everyone feel good but aren't utilised. When done properly, they keep the voice of the beneficiary of the design centred throughout the process.
So, what are design principles?
Firstly, there are two types of design principles: universal and specific. Universal design principles are more like best practice rules found in design books or websites. They are most useful when working in an area with low design literacy, but they don't cover everything. Specific design principles, on the other hand, are created by the design team for a specific project.
Specific design principles are guidelines to help you and your design team gain alignment, come up with ideas, and make decisions. They are developed through research with end beneficiaries.
Let's break that down.
Design principles work as a set of guidelines or rules to follow during the design process. They are actionable. They guide the work and help you come up with ideas by providing direction and constraints. They also help you validate ideas by giving you something to measure against.
The second point is that they are developed through research with end beneficiaries. They surface the insights and learnings from design research and make them actionable so that designers have something to refer to throughout the design process. In a way, they are recommendations on what the solution should be.
Let's look at an example.
Let's say you were researching a healthcare service and found that patients were repeatedly asked to share their health history every time they were transferred to a new area. This was a significant pain point, making them feel like they were just a number and not seen as individuals. Some were retraumatised by having to share personal details repeatedly, especially when health professionals seemed disengaged or lacking empathy.
That's the research finding, developed through research with beneficiaries of the proposed new design, and supported by research with other stakeholders and literature reviews.
The design principles could be something like: "Only ask once" or "Listen, and appreciate the information patients are giving us."
You can see these principles are not overly prescriptive about what the design solution should look like. This is helpful because it allows you to explore various ideas. There are many ways you could respond to "Only ask once". It could be a data management solution, a patient handover solution, or numerous other ideas.
Through the design process, you would generate multiple principles and narrow them down to an agreed list that will continue to inform the design. It's a way of keeping the research alive as you move through other stages of design. If you have the time and space, it's always a good idea to validate these principles with beneficiaries too.
How to use Design Principles in practice
They are a way to get alignment across the team on how to frame and scope the solutions.
They are prompts to help kick-start creativity.
They are tools to evaluate ideas and fuel rounds of iteration.
They are useful in making decisions and compromises throughout the process.
They are helpful in bringing new people into the project.
Good principles
Are actionable.
Help decision-making and prioritisation.
Are based on real insight.
Help refocus on the beneficiary.
Things to avoid
You want the principles to be actionable and draw on real insight. Sometimes they might even need to be challenging.
Single-word principles like "simplicity"; these are too generic and not actionable enough.
Watered-down principles that sound good but don't mean anything, like "Deliver excellence."
Principles that are just recommendations, like "Create efficient handover processes."
The problem with principles
Principles can flatten the diverse experiences of different stakeholders, as many kinds of theme-based synthesis can. It's important to keep this in mind and look for ways to support diverse solutions that cater to different needs.
Design principles can be a powerful tool for ensuring that the voice of the beneficiary remains at the heart of the design process. When crafted thoughtfully and used effectively, they guide the work, foster creativity, and facilitate decision-making. By distinguishing between universal and specific principles, and grounding them in genuine insights from research, design teams can create solutions that are relevant and impactful.
