1.
Design Principles
as a tool
Gabriel Svennerberg Designed for Humans | www.meetod.com

2.
Gabriel Svennerberg
UX Designer
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3.
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4.
Design Principles FTW
www.designprinciplesftw.com
A great resource to get inspiration from other people’s
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Design Principles

5.
What is a Design Principle?
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6.
Design tenants
Design mantras
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Designprinciper
Experience principles
Design criteria
Experience attributes
Design personality
Heuristics
There are a lot of different terms for Design Principles and
no definite definition.

7.
FOCUS ON FOCUS ON
Properties The experience
I’ve tried to categorize different kinds of principles in a
matrix like this according to level of specificity and focus.
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Specific
General

8.
FOCUS ON FOCUS ON Visibility of system
Properties The experience
status
– 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
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Specific
General

9.
FOCUS ON Zero/low interaction FOCUS ON
Properties The experience
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Specific
– Design Principles for Android Wear
General

10.
Focus on the
experience, not on the
function
– UX Axioms by Erik Dahl
FOCUS ON FOCUS ON
Properties The experience
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Specific
General

11.
FOCUS ON Discover the UnexpecteFdOCUS ON
Properties The experience
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Specific
– HTC Hero Principles
General

12.
FOCUS ON FOCUS ON
Properties The experience
You’ll find the most useful principles here
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Specific
General

13.
What are they good for?
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14.
“Design
principles are like
a north star to
help you sail the
ship of design.”
– Leah Buley
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15.
Acts as Guard Rails
Design Principles can act as guard rails to keep your design
from getting completely derailed
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16.
Create a consistent
experience
Helping in creating a consistent experience is especially
true when there’s a lot of people involved in the project
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17.
How do you create
your own?
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18.
Headline: Short and memorable
THE ANATOMY OF A DESIGN PRINCIPLE
There’s always a next step
The experience does not end. There is always a
next step that the user can take to move on.
A richer description of the principle
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Exampels
• Finish with a clear call-to-action
• Link to deeper information
• Suggest to contact someone
• Display related information
Sometimes some concrete examples of the implications can be useful

19.
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Tip
• Base the principles on your research
or the research of others
• Create them collaboratively
They have a much greater impact with a shared ownership
• Get inspiration from the principles of
others
For example from designprinciplesftw.com
• 5-7 principles are sufficient
Less and you risk not covering the primary parts of your
product/service, more and they will be hard to remember

20.
How do you use them?
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21.
Keep them alive
They are no use just collection dust. Keep them accessible
to team members, either in digital format or in print.
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22.
Print posters an put up on strategic places or print a simple
folder that team members kan keep at their desks.
Från: UX Team of One av Leah Buley

23.
Repeat, repeat, repeat
Start every workshop or design meeting with a brief
reiteration of the design principles. It keeps them top of
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mind.

24.
Modify them as you go
Just as our products evolve so must our principles. If a
principle doesn’t work anymore, change it!
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25.
Create great design principles, get them into the team
members minds and your job as a UX-designer or Product
Owner will be much easier.
Designed for Humans Image: Simple Unicorn av Marc Clancy | www.meetod.com

26.
“These are my
principles; if you
don’t like them, I
have others.”
– Groucho Marx
And remember: If you’re principles doesn’t work the way you
expect them, you can always create new ones.
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27.
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Thank you!
Email gabriel@meetod.com
Twitter @svennerberg
Web www.meetod.com
Phone +46 (0)73-687 07 30