Awesome Design Principles

A curated list of good design and experience principles.

Design Principles are a tool for creating better and more consistent designs and experiences. They are high level rules that guide detailed design decisions. They are often written down within bigger style guides, pattern libraries or design systems.

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Principles within bigger Design Systems

Alibaba Ant Design Principles
Apple Human Interface Principles
Atlassian Brand Personality
Co-op Design Principles
Firefox Photon Design System Principles
Google Material Design Principles
GOV.uk Design Principles
Harmony Design System Voice & Tone Principles
IBM Carbon Design Principles
Lost My Name Design System Principles
Mailchimp Writing Goals and Principles
Nachos - Trello's Design System Principles
Seek Style Guide Principles
Shopify Polaris Principles
U.S. Web Design Principles

Articles about Design Principles

Design Principles - a Guide - Good introduction and best practices.
Developing Asanas Design Principles - Inside article on how Asana developed their principles.
The Core Principles of UI Design - Short excerpt from Fundamental UI Design, an InVision e-course by Jane Portman.
Design Principles Guide to less shitty Feedback - Short introduction and practical guide on how to set design principles (with examples)

Other Resources

Built Environment Innovation Design - Lists professional design disciplines associated with built environment ventures and describes their roles (part of an open source project based learning challenge curricula).
Learn Design Principles - Learn how design principles can be applied from architecture to product design.
Design Principles FTW - "The biggest collection of Design Principles on the Internet."
principles.adactio.com - Huge list with various types of more traditional design principles.
Principles of User Interface Design - Long list with well explained principles by Joshua Porter
Principles of Product Design - Long list with well explained principles by Joshua Porter

Credits and Notes

This list is heavily inspired by Awesome Design Systems by Alex Pate. As an UX designer I find myself writing design and/or experience principles quite often. I created this list for reference and to get inspiration for better design principles.

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