How creating Design Principles helped us become a better design group

And, why you should have them too.

Flashback to the year 2010…

When we started helping product companies with user experience design in the year 2010, every design stand up would turn into an intense battle of color and gradient choices. We would spend hours in countless tiring discussions and exchanging not-so-pleasant verbal volleys.

Everyone had their opinion which couldn’t be ignored, and through this chaos, we would often hear phrases like-

• Huh…Whatya mean by the button should be smaller?
• Have you heard of the word? Umm…whatyamacall it — yeah… consistency!
• Step away from the design please…
• What on the earth is wrong with using Lorem Ipsum…I love those profound Latin words

Okay, I exaggerate.

Back then, our design stand ups showed the difference in our group’s design philosophies, lack of standardizations and what we valued. It’s not that designs were bad but they weren’t following any core design principles.

Even more frustrating was when the feedback did not give anything actionable and someone would blurt, “It just doesn’t feel right”.