Writing Design Principles
A framework for writing design principles that are actually usable in real work, drawn from workshops at UX Cambridge and UX Bristol, emphasising conciseness, memorability, and decisiveness.
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Concise
Principles must be readable at a glance and cut down to a single line, removing explanations and caveats to expose whether the idea actually holds.
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Memorable
Principles should be easy to repeat and have a natural shape that makes them stick in conversation, not requiring lookup to influence decisions.
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Decisive
Principles must help you choose between options by creating a bias, guiding judgement rather than describing what’s good or replacing decision-making with rules. Evolved from “Definitive” to emphasise guidance over inflexibility.