How do you define design principles and scope?
Turn user needs into checkable principles and agree on the problems to solve first.
Design principles are shared criteria for making decisions. Scope defines the problems a stage of work will address. Together, they explain why the team chooses an approach and how far to take it.
Keep these basics in mind
- Begin with a user task, such as finding an order or editing a profile, before choosing a visual style.
- A principle should help resolve choices. Clear needs a check, such as whether button text explains the result of clicking.
- Accessibility means enabling people with different abilities and ways of using a page to obtain information and operate it. Consider it from the start.
- Agree on users, maintainers, reviewers, and initial outputs so the work has owners.
See USWDS design principles for user needs, accessibility, and continuing feedback.
Turn principles into work
Illustrative principles and checks
These are example agreements, not wording every website must adopt.
| Vague request | Clearer principle | A way to check |
|---|---|---|
| Make it premium | Give information a clear order | Can users find the main content? |
| Make it easy | Give clear feedback for key actions | Can users tell what happened after saving? |
| Make it consistent | Express the same action in the same way | Do equivalent actions use equivalent wording? |
Walk through an example
A booking website chooses completing a booking as its main task. Unclear form errors lead to the principle Know how to correct an error. The first stage covers forms, buttons, and messages. The designer documents them, the developer implements them, and both check actual text and keyboard use before choosing the next stage.
Limits and common misunderstandings
A principle differs from a parameter such as use one font. Parameters vary by project; principles help judge whether a change makes sense. Scope can change too, but the team needs to explain the problem new work solves and who will maintain it.