Design principles: What, why, how?
For this month’s blog post I decided to write a bit about design principles because I think that as designers we accept their importance on a basic level but we don’t often use them to make individual visual identities work harder. They’re sort of just a given. But they could be so much more.
On that basic level - and whether we’re consciously thinking about it or not - we use design principles in all the work we do. We think about things like negative space, hierarchy, contrast, alignment and so on because they apply to pretty much any type of design, from print to branding and the web.
Pushing these principles a bit further, though, we can validate our design choices and make sure all our projects don’t end up looking kind of the same. We can make sure the way we interpret all these principles properly aligns with our client’s brand. When we do this we can also expand the basic design principles to include other applications, such as, typography, colour, perspective and motion.
The design of a product - as it should be - is open for wider feedback than other phases of a project. The end result has to be accessible, useful and enjoyable for everyone. So it’s natural that everyone involved will have an opinion on it. Design needs collaboration. We need to stand up for our work without being precious about it.
Even with the best intentions, though, this can lead to disagreements. Sometimes we have to interpret unclear feedback and for clients it must be frustrating to not be able to fully articulate it. But this is a problem we can easily solve. In starting the design phase of a project by defining the principles for the brand we can create a shared vocabulary for everyone to use. This means we’re all on the same page for what the visuals need to achieve and so critiques are clearer and more productive. Feedback is based on whether the design fits with the now signed off principles instead of personal taste or snap judgements.
In doing this we can have conversations about what type of motion or photography etc would best suit the brand personality. For example, if a brand’s personality includes words like “trustworthy” and “authoritative” we could recommend that motion would convey this by being smooth, always landing precisely and never wobbling or lagging. We would then explain our rationale to the client to get sign off before jumping into producing guidelines. As a result it would save them money and time!
In the past I have gone about creating design principles in two different ways depending on the type of project.
At the start of branding projects there is a bit of a leap for clients between defining the brand positioning and starting the visual identity guidelines. Defining design principles before getting into the nitty-gritty opens up the whole process and allows more direct collaboration. It’s a stepping stone that puts everyone on the same page before getting into more granular detail about the visual brand.
Other times when starting a new project with a client who has visual identity guidelines already established I have found that there are some gaps. The modern approach to branding should always be “digital first” but sometimes with new clients their visual identity guidelines are more focused on print. They are missing guidance that is needed to be able to make the best digital solution for them and their users. Some of the most common gaps in visual identity guidelines that I have seen are accessibility and motion.
We should be striving to make sure all of our work is as inclusive as possible so the level of accessibility we should be aiming for is always a conversation we need to have with new clients. Motion is becoming more and more important in conveying a brand’s personality online and it can also improve the user experience. So, if this is the case with new clients, recommending a short design exploration phase where you can fill in any gaps in the visual identity and define principles that will make their brand work harder for them online is super helpful going forward.
TL;DR
Design principles help us make better decisions, they can break the deadlock over design disagreements and get everyone involved on the same page all while saving our clients time and money. This is why we should show more love to design principles!