My Design Principles
“Designing isn’t magic; it’s work and that’s OK”
- John Voss
Since art school, I’ve developed a set of core design principles that have guided my work. While I’ve always kept them in mind, I never formally documented them—until I delved into UX design. As my design thinking has evolved, I felt it was time to put them into words, offering clients a clearer understanding of my approach and process.
At the heart of my design principles is a deep commitment to understanding the problem before jumping to solutions. Research, observation, and iteration are essential to creating designs that are not only functional but also engaging and efficient. By thoroughly exploring user needs and business goals, I ensure that every decision is intentional and impactful.
Design to Function
All creative endeavors serve a function (even surrealism. Feel free to debate me on it). Good design and especially good UX design stems from keeping the function of the product in mind at all stages of development. A product may have multiple functions (in which case I actually think of them as multiple products) but any element that does not directly serve the function needs to be eliminated. It can be as simple as removing a couple of extra clicks in a process or as complex as deprecating an entire widget that serves no purpose. Every time you streamline your users process you make your product better.
Design to Message
Your company (or group, or charity, or what have you) has a brand message that needs to be communicated to your users. Are you a tough and aggressive winner or a kind and supportive caregiver? Do you sell punk rock t-shirts or shirts with unicorns and butterflies? Are you a financial service where a user feels safe investing their money or an online gambling site for financial thrill-seekers? Each of these brands has a different message to relate about who they are and how they want be perceived and the color palette, typography, layout, density, buttons, objects, and imagery all shape that message. A good UX design takes all these elements into account and delivers a truer narrative than any amount of text can.
“Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.” - Brian Reed
Design to Profit
At the end of the day a product that does not deliver benefit to the stakeholders is a failure. For a design to be considered good there has to be a net profit from its use. Of course “profit” can mean many things. Are you looking for more sales or subscriptions? Maybe eyeballs on a video or engagement with a news site. You could be looking to sign up people for a petition or conducting a survey. Regardless of your metric the operative term is always more. This is where a lot of designers fail by losing sight of the business case while designing what they consider very cool UX. Cool does not always equal profitable.