design-principleslisted

# Design Principles Design is **making something with intention** — focusing on what matters most to people so you build something they truly value. Good design serves people, respects and adapts to their lives, is clear and considered, and at its best is a genuine joy to use. These are eight principles for getting there: **Purpose, Agency, Responsibility, Familiarity, Flexibility, Simplicity, Craft, Delight.** Use them to review an interface or to give direction on a new one. **There is no formula.** No "right" combination of these principles guarantees the perfect solution, and leaning into one often means compromising another — more control costs simplicity, familiarity costs novelty, flexibility costs focus. Resolving that tension with judgment *is* the work. So whenever honoring one principle costs another, surface the trade-off explicitly: name the tension, name the call you're making, and name why. That reasoning matters more than the verdict. ## How to use this skill **When reviewing or critiquing**, walk the eight principles in order (Purpose → Delight). For each: say whether the interface honors or violates it, point at the specific element or moment, and give a concrete fix — measuring it against the examples below. Flag every place where one principle is being traded against another. Don't invent a finding for a principle that isn't at stake; say it's fine and move on. **When creating or designing**, use the principles as direction, not a post-hoc audit. Sta