Build services that meet or exceed user needs.
Getting a full understanding of the user perspective (beyond just their use of a particular service) means you can create new and better ways of solving problems.
Nine core design principles express how we should approach digital design.
1. Understand your users
2. Design for context
Understand the users’ environment and the context of use.
Understanding how a service fits into the user’s wider environment means you can make that service truly useful, usable and desirable.
3. Design for inclusivity
Build services that are accessible to all users.
Everything we build should be accessible and readable for all audiences.
4. Always evidence decisions
Design is based on robust evidence of user needs.
Decision making should never be led by guesswork or anecdotal experience. Having robust research means you can properly establish user needs and validate the proposed solutions.
5. Evaluate continuously
Review regularly with users to ensure services meet their needs.
Teams who regularly observe end users make better decisions and deliver the best solutions.
6. Be consistent, but not uniform
Promote familiarity, but stay user-centred.
Using consistent language and design patterns helps understanding, but you should be ready to change if you find evidence that another approach better meets users’ needs.
7. Work transparently
Sharing work as you go along gives students and colleagues a chance to offer feedback, which improves the service.
8. Collaborate across disciplines
The most effective services are designed by staff with different perspectives coming together to understand and solve problems.
9. Be open to change
Perfection is a mythical state; be open to an ongoing process of improvement.
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