HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN | DEFINE

Design Principles

30 Min

Design Principles help build a shared team vision for a solution. They are rules and constraints that help teams decide what to do, and what not to do as they move towards a solution.

USE CASES

Define the scope and intent of a solution.
Align a team's vision for a solution.

LIMITATIONS

Defining design principles can be challenging. It is not easy to agree on what must and must not be done. Principles may be too idealistic and open ended, or too constrained. A team must be prepared to iterate on principles as new data and learnings emerge (especially after user testing).

UNDERSTANDING THE TOOL

Design principles help guide teams as they look at creating products and services. Each question box in this activity is meant to encourage discussion.
‘Who We Must Focus On/Avoid’ should help a team prioritise the users and stakeholders they want to focus the solution on.
‘How We Must Act/Not Act’ should help a team define the kind of processes and systems they want to adopt.
‘Where We Must Act/Not Act’ should help a team define the geographical or topical focus of their solution.
‘When We Must Act/Not Act’ should help a team define the timescales — short or long term, periodic or continuous, etc. that they want to work on.
‘Why We Must Act/Not Act’ should help a team define their core mission.
‘Prioritised Principles’ should clearly call out the 5-7 strongest principles that the team agrees on.

STEP BY STEP

List principles: As a team, review and discuss the questions in this list. The answers will form the basis of the principles. Not all questions need to be answered, only those that seem relevant.
Prioritise principles: After all the relevant boxes are filled, discuss and choose the top 5-7 principles that everyone agrees on.

HOW TO FOR FACILITATORS

At the start: Have everyone review the questions as a team, decide whether they want to do the activity individually first and then do it as a group, or brainstorm together.
During the exercise: Help participants navigate any disagreement. Encourage participants to move forward if they are getting stuck on any question.
At the close: Have participants choose 5-7 principles to move forward with.

FACILITATORS QUESTION BANK

What does the word 'principles' mean to you?
Can you list 2-3 principles that may be driving your organisation and teams right now?
Are you looking at organisational/programme level principles? Or at specific product and service principles?
As you are thinking through the questions, are there any in particular that strikes a chord? Are there any you are struggling with?
Where does the team have the most amount of consensus? Where in this process, is there disagreement amongst the team?
What are emerging as the most important 5-7 principles?
How will these principles help you in developing a solution?

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