ui-principles

Topics in the source

• UI principles
• Working to them
• Start from the decisions
• Reduce effort, reveal depth on demand
• Act next to the object
• One gesture commits one decision
• Expose only valid choices
• Keep async results truthful

These principles decide what goes on a screen, how it behaves and how it looks. They are a standard to decide by rather than a checklist to cite. They come from tools a person uses repeatedly, such as an editor or an admin screen, so a first visit to a website bends some of them, and each section says where. Visual identity is the design direction's business, and these principles never override it. Designing. Start from the decisions, then compose from that list rather than from the screens that already exist. Checking. One gesture per decision, only valid choices and local waits are the ones a plausible control breaks silently, so exercise them before calling a screen done. Reviewing. A finding names the observed behaviour, where it happens and the principle it breaks, because a principle's name alone is not evidence. Conflict. Choose one principle, name the one given up, and record the tradeoff. Before any layout, list the decisions a person makes on this surface and how often each happens. The frequent decision gets the most direct, visible gesture, and a rare edit stays available out of the way. On a website, a first visit's decisions come before repeat actions: does this perso

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