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“Principles are higher than techniques. Principles produce techniques in an instant.”–Ido Portal
Principles are the way to design meaningful experiences. So how to write them? You start by collecting frequently seen problems and solutions in a single place, where they can be compared. Come together and analyze your solutions: find similarities, unearth flaws, debate strategy, and then shake out a principle that underlies everything.
But there are strong principles and bleh principles. So, at the risk of being annoyingly meta, here are four principles for writing content principles:
| Do this | Not this |
|---|---|
| Above all, be clear | Don’t hedge |
| Be brief | Don’t go on and on… |
| Have an opinion | Don’t be generic |
| Trust by default | Don’t tinker |
Designers look to principles to answer a question, “What should I do here?” Tell them. Don’t hedge or use nuanced language. Even if it is a matter of taste (because all principles are), make a point that is unmistakable.
| Do this | Not this |
|---|---|
| Buttons start with verbs | Button text should be action-oriented |
| Warnings indicate an unwanted result | Warnings should be used sparingly |
Principles use simple language and should provide directives to follow. They sometimes need interpreting (“what counts as unwanted?”), but that’s the fun of being a designer. Artfully interpreting design principles to solve problems is the designer’s job.
Be brief. A principle can’t be followed if it’s not memorable. And they are hard to remember when they’re too long. Keep it short. Don’t add meandering clauses. Don’t justify every choice. (I had you at “brief” didn’t I?)
| Do this | Not this |
|---|---|
| Avoid closing punctuation in bullets | Bullet points may or may not take bullet points depending on the situations. If your point is two or more sentences, use closing punctuation. If it’s one sentence try to recast as a short phrase (unless the rest of the bullet points take closing punctuation) |
Strong principles are opinionated. If your principle is utterly uncontroversial (“Be helpful”) it will elicit more yawns than compliance. For example, “Be clear” is not a strong point of view: “Above all, be clear” is. A pattern is ultimately an opinion that tells the reader: “We’ve debated this, so you don’t have to.” There are infinite ways to solve a problem. Principles unblock designers so they don’t have to consider all of them.
| Do this | Not this |
|---|---|
| Don’t give the UI feelings | Be charming but not folksy |
| Settings should be 3 or fewer clicks away | Focus on the user |
It takes effort to learn patterns. Resist the temptation to refine patterns on every use, even when there’s a conflict. This will slow you down. It also leads to confusion and distrust.
Patterns represent the most-considered current opinion on a recurring design problem. They can’t solve every problem. Find a way to make it work if you can.
| Do this | Not this |
|---|---|
| Follow the pattern | Call a meeting to debate the raison d’etre of the pattern the first time you try to use it |
(That said, once a pattern is found to be unusable, prune it. Irrelevant patterns undermine the whole system.)
See the Principles of content design