The Zen of GitHub
GitHub's design philosophy focuses on creating a cohesive, inclusive, and efficient platform experience that enables developers to focus on their work through familiar patterns, accessibility, and thoughtful design that encourages flow and productivity.
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Responsive is better than fast
Design for all users and contexts rather than optimizing for speed at the expense of accessibility and inclusivity.
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It's not fully shipped until it's fast
Performance is not an afterthought; features must be performant to be considered complete.
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Anything added dilutes everything else
Every addition to the interface increases cognitive load; be intentional about what you include.
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Practicality beats purity
Choose solutions that work in practice over theoretically perfect but impractical approaches.
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Approachable is better than simple
Design should be welcoming and easy to understand, not just technically simple.
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Mind your words, they are important
Language and communication are critical to user experience and understanding.
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Speak like a human
Use natural, human language in interfaces and documentation.
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Half measures are as bad as nothing at all
Commit fully to solutions; partial implementations create more problems than they solve.
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Encourage flow
Design experiences that allow users to maintain focus and productivity without interruption.
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Non-blocking is better than blocking
Avoid preventing users from continuing their work; design for asynchronous workflows.
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Favor focus over features
Prioritize helping users accomplish their goals over adding unnecessary features.
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Avoid administrative distraction
Minimize overhead and administrative tasks that distract from primary work.
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Design for failure
Anticipate and handle errors gracefully; systems should be resilient.
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Keep it logically awesome
Maintain clear, logical structure and reasoning in design decisions.
Know of a set of design principles that should be here? Contribute an example