PRINCIPLES
I've noticed several themes in my work that seem to apply super often (perhaps, "always"). I find that designs and processes which consider these principles make better experiences for both users and creators of technology.
VISUAL & INTERACTION DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Start with Desire lineS
Find out how users are "making do" without the design you're going to make. Those workarounds hold vital clues about what will make a new design successful.
DON'T REINVENT THE WHEEL
There are TONS of proven best practices for all aspects of design that are well documented. Especially for common design patters, we should be aware of industry standards. Following those standards often makes experiences more intuitive for users and saves us time, too.
We all "Think Different"
It's not just Steve Jobs that thinks different. A visual or structural design that makes sense to one person may be gibberish to the next. Strong designs consider how users' expectations will vary. Example of factors to consider: age, vocation, cultural norms, physical diversity, neurodiversity.
CHANGE IS HARD
No matter how natural it is, we humans can't help finding change difficult. Change invokes frustration about being interrupted and anxiety over the effort it'll take to learn a new way. As designers, we can often ease this pain by making UX changes gradually -- to ease the learning curve and reduce interruptions to users' critical workflows.
UX RESEARCH & DATA ANALYSIS
Data needs integrity
No one piece of data is a silver bullet that holds the whole "truth." Data is meaningful only insofar as it is scoped thoughtfully and collected with rigor. Both qualitative & quantitative data may be needed to round out a picture. Limitations of data must be well known and shared.
DON'T LEAD
It's an industry cliche, but that doesn't mean it's easy. It's always worth double checking that research methods don't lead users' to certain perspectives or biases that we hold as designers.
LINK
1 + 1 > 2
When it comes to research strategies, two is always greater than one. We can learn a ton from one source (e.g. product usage data) but we can strengthen our learnings exponentially by investigating them in a different context (e.g. how is our usage data reflected when we interview users directly?).
DESIGN COMMUNICATION & PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Real life is complex
Designs are impactful when they can meet real people, in their real lives. Technology design & engineering teams should be aware of how their designs will interact with social, moral, environmental, security and other systems. This awareness will make our solutions not just more responsible but also more robust.
Progress, Not PERFECTION
A key construct of VSD, this principles is a reminder that perfect can be the enemy of good. The hairier the problem, the more crucial it is to start with a basic solution then iteratively improve as we learn from seeing how our design fares in the real world.
products Reflect THEIR creators
The assumptions we make about our users, the priorities we assign to features, the tradeoffs we make during development -- these are just a few examples of how our personal & team views get baked into everything we make. We should intentionally foster our values and working cultures, knowing that they will inevitably shape our designs.