Design Principles
principles.design
Design Principles
1–10 of 76 posts
Re: Design Principles
#2This feels more like corporate mission statements and unique selling propositions than 'design principles' to me, am I missing something?
Re: Design Principles
#3These read like brand attributes to me. They are too general to be design principles. It’s not clear if the interaction design principles are intended to be universal or specific to Airbnb? If the former I must call shenanigans. There are no universal design principles.
Re: Design Principles
#4100% of the people interviewed work @ microsoft... and that's where I stopped reading
Re: Design Principles
#5Genuine question: Is there an applicable takeaway from principles this vague?
"Tolerant: Handle errors respectfully.
Effortless: Don’t make demands or place restrictions on your users.
Accommodating: Be approachable, uncluttered and give people room to manoeuvre.
Consistent: Follow standards, guidelines, conventions and best practices."
Re: Design Principles
#6100% of the people interviewed work @ microsoft... and that's where I stopped reading
Wrong thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15892898
Re: Design Principles
#7Genuine question: Is there an applicable takeaway from principles this vague? "Tolerant: Handle errors respectfully. Effortless: Don’t make demands or place restrictions on your users. Accommodating: Be approachable, uncluttered and give people room to manoeuvre. Consistent: Follow standards, guidelines, conventions and best practices."
This is a great point. "Principles" should be about taking a stand about the trade-offs between two desirable things. They can then be used to help guide you when these things come into conflict. Who is trying to make a product that is intolerant, burdensome, aloof, and inconsistent?
A framework I usually use is a "this over that", where both "this" and "that" represent things generally considered "good". The Agile Manifesto contains a brilliant example of this:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
Notice how everything on the right is also a "good" thing, but the manifesto is making you CHOOSE.
Re: Design Principles
#8Genuine question: Is there an applicable takeaway from principles this vague? "Tolerant: Handle errors respectfully. Effortless: Don’t make demands or place restrictions on your users. Accommodating: Be approachable, uncluttered and give people room to manoeuvre. Consistent: Follow standards, guidelines, conventions and best practices."
No. Unfortunately, much of the design industry's exports as of late have become by-and-large impractical fluff. I say this as a designer. If these ideas were expanded upon and articulated with case studies or practical advice then absolutely.
If you're curious about principles backed with implementation details, check out https://cadence.cc. Looks unassuming but one of the best books on design I've ever read.
Re: Design Principles
#9Genuine question: Is there an applicable takeaway from principles this vague? "Tolerant: Handle errors respectfully. Effortless: Don’t make demands or place restrictions on your users. Accommodating: Be approachable, uncluttered and give people room to manoeuvre. Consistent: Follow standards, guidelines, conventions and best practices."
No. Unfortunately, much of the design industry's exports as of late have become by-and-large impractical fluff. I say this as a designer. If these ideas were expanded upon and articulated with case studies or practical advice then absolutely. If you're curious about principles backed with implementation details, check out https://cadence.cc . Looks unassuming but one of the best books on design I've ever read.
Designer here as well, similarly frustrated with the lack of analytical rigor in the discipline.
Cadence & Slang did not impress me. I read it a few years ago now so I can’t quote exact examples, but at the time it felt like more fluff to be honest. Well written fluff, but still fluff (ie will design students in 20 years, or even now, benefit from reading it like they would a classic such as “Grid systems for visual design”? My money is on no). Would be curious to hear what aspects of it you particularly enjoyed.
Sadly enough, I find that the best books on designing for interactive media are from the 80s/90s. Examples include Raskin’s “The Humane Interface”, Togazzini’s compendiums, etc.
Re: Design Principles
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Unfortunately, much of the design industry's exports as of late have become by-and-large impractical fluff. I say this as a designer. If these ideas were expanded upon and articulated with case studies or practical advice then absolutely. If you're curious about principles backed with implementation details, check out https://cadence.cc . Looks unassuming but one of the best books on design I've ever read.
Designer here as well, similarly frustrated with the lack of analytical rigor in the discipline. Cadence & Slang did not impress me. I read it a few years ago now so I can’t quote exact examples, but at the time it felt like more fluff to be honest. Well written fluff, but still fluff (ie will design students in 20 years, or even now, benefit from reading it like they would a classic such as “Grid systems for visual…
I do design research. My papers always provide principles with examples and evidence. They are generally very specific though (unlike this article). I agree that it is rare outside of the research community to find evidence (the why) and implementation details (the how) though.
An example paper of mine: Toward Principles for the Design of Navigation Affordances in Code Editors: An Empirical Investigation http://dl.acm.org/authorize?N37917