Design principles are widely applicable laws, guidelines, biases and design considerations which designers apply with discretion. Professionals from many disciplines — e.g., behavioral science, sociology, physics and ergonomics — provided the foundation for design principles via their accumulated knowledge and experience. Design principles are fundamental pieces of advice for you to make easy-to-use, pleasurable designs. You apply them when you select, create and organize elements and...

Few things in life are constant: death, taxes, and strangers asking “So what do you do?” within a minute of a handshake. As a UX designer, I’ve had a lot of practice over the years trying to nail down my answer. Before you dig into details, you have to settle on basics: font(s). Through exploration, comparison, research, and often — for large companies — making a font themselves, every display cascades from and depends on this choice. It’s my job to be inside a user’s brain. I need to look...

Everyday digital interfaces include a rich variety of images, visualizations, and other pictures. However, more than anything else, they are made of words. Oh so many words. As we equip teams to design and code usable, consistent, beautiful interfaces using systems, it’s essential that words depend on a strong foundation of typography. I’ll admit, I am not a typography expert. I lack a graphic design degree. I’m never the person choosing a font, scaling type, or finessing letter spacing. As a...