I recently came across a couple of lists of design principles. Whether we realise it or not, all designers work to their own set of values. They are an essential part of the design process. Therefore it’s important to remind yourself of these once in a while and check your work against them.
The first example is the “Ten principles for good design”. I like these because they are universally applicable. You can apply them to almost any type of design in any market. I think this is a great set of values for the individual designer:
Good design: Dieter Rams’ ten commandments
The second example is Facebook’s Internal Design Manifesto. This resonates a lot of the values from the first list but repackages and refocuses them so they are specific to Facebook:
Facebook’s Internal Design Manifesto – Thomas Crampton
Does anyone know of design principles for other organisations?
UPDATE: Here’s a fantastic round-up of principles by fellow designer James Mansfield
UPDATE: The Principles of Good Web Design (with real world examples): Part 1: Layout, Part 2: Navigation, Part 3: Colour.