Design Principles
An agreed-upon set of guidelines that help frame how a design team approaches and solves problems.
Steps
1. Rally the team together
Bring together the team. The more people you can get involved, the easier it will be to ensure widespread adoption.
2. Define the criteria of your principles
On sticky notes, ask the group to write down the criteria the principles must meet to be valuable. Stick this up so its visible for the next step. For example: must be specific, focussed on user needs, and scalable across systems. Also consider: are these principles for your service, interaction or content design? Or should they encompass all of these areas?
3. Diverge
For the next 10 minutes, ask each team member to write as many design principles as they can. For example, 'use inclusive language', or 'animation must imply how the UI can be interacted with, or it shouldn't be used'.
4. Converge
In turn, ask each team member to share their ideas. Stick them up on a wall and group into themes as you go. Next, with three votes each, have everyone dot vote the themes they feel resonate most.
5. Refine and Apply
As a group, stress-test the principles by applying them to existing or hypothetical new design work. Consolidate the principles where possible and refine how they are articulated until they are clear and specific. Make a plan for how to share these principles so they are always considered in your design practice.