Design Principles

One of the things that I believe builds good teams is to be in alignment on goals, vision, and principles. To better understand where I am coming from, here are some of my personal design principles.

1. Design Inclusively I don’t believe in edge cases. I believe in designing empathetic solutions that can withstand any scenario that our user could be experiencing. This includes but is not limited to assistive technology, stressful situations, and any device size.

2. Design for Performance I keep the speed and ease of user flows top of mind. Even one additional click can impact perceived speed and extraneous fonts can slow down the loading speed.

3. Design with Clarity Necessary information should be at the forefront of the interaction, never hidden. I design a clearer experience through a series of small design decisions that thread a workflow together such as labelling ambiguous icons or pulling primary actions out of menus.

4. Design with Research I design for real users with real scenarios. If I don't know the answer, and don't have a similar experience to draw from, I look to research before forming an opinion.

5. Design Semantically I design based on information architecture, semantic meaning behind an interface element, and utilizing smart defaults. Design is a communication tool, and I ensure that those communications are honest and accurate to the information that is being displayed.