Design principles are a small set of clear, shared criteria that guide every design decision a team makes, from major strategic choices down to small typographic details. They translate a project's values, user insights, and strategic intent into actionable design guidance. When well-crafted, design principles prevent inconsistency, resolve conflicts between competing options, and give every team member a shared framework for evaluating whether any given decision is heading in the right direction.
What It Is
Design principles are short, memorable statements, typically four to eight per project, that describe the qualities a design should embody. They are not generic platitudes like 'be simple' or 'be user-friendly,' which could apply to any product. Effective design principles are specific to the project's context and genuinely help teams choose between competing options. A good design principle has a clear implication: it tells you not just what to value but what to prioritise when values conflict. Examples from well-known products include Apple's 'focus,' Airbnb's 'be a host, not a hotel,' and GOV.UK's 'do the hard work to make it simple.'
How to Run It
Derive design principles from research insights, brand values, and strategic intent rather than generating them from scratch in a workshop. Run a collaborative workshop with the design team and key stakeholders to draft candidate principles. Write each principle in plain, active language. Test each candidate against a set of real design decisions the team faces: does this principle help us make the decision? If not, it is either too vague or not addressing a real design challenge. Select the four to eight strongest principles and refine them for clarity and memorability.
When to Use It
Design principles are most useful at the start of a design phase, after research has been synthesised, to provide a design foundation that all team members share. They are particularly valuable for large teams, long projects, and projects involving multiple agencies or freelancers who need to work consistently without being briefed on every detail. Revisit them at the start of each new project phase to check whether they still reflect the team's understanding of the challenge.
Tips for Success
Test your principles by trying to argue the opposite. If the opposite of your principle sounds obviously wrong, the principle is probably too generic to be useful. For example, 'be clear' is a weak principle because no designer would argue for 'be confusing.' A stronger version might be 'say one thing at a time,' which has a real implication for layout decisions. Make principles visible throughout the project: print them on the studio wall, add them to design files, and reference them explicitly in design critiques.
