# Good Design Principles

Ten principles of good design, after Dieter Rams. Shaped by designing software since 2007, much of it for deeply technical users.

By Jens Nikolaus. https://jensnikolaus.com/design-principles

## 1. Good Design Is Deep, Not Broad.

UX, product, business, and frontend held at once. The best decisions happen where they meet.

## 2. Good Design Starts With the Customer's Job.

Not the feature request or the competitor's screenshot. The outcome people are hiring the product for.

## 3. Good Design Respects Expertise.

Make experts faster, never explain their craft back to them. Density is fine. Condescension isn't.

## 4. Good Design Makes the Invisible Legible.

Turn abstract systems into something you can see and act on, without hiding the truth underneath.

## 5. Good Design Treats History as Context.

A snapshot shows what's happening. A history shows why.

## 6. Good Design Is Made, Not Described.

Prototype in the real material. A working thing settles more debates than a deck.

## 7. Good Design Survives the Next Rewrite.

Durable over trendy. If the next rebuild throws it away, it was decoration.

## 8. Good Design Is Inclusive.

If it only works for the people who made it, it doesn't work.

## 9. Good Design Is Slow Where It Matters.

Sustainable pace over heroic sprints. Rushed work gets redone; considered work compounds.

## 10. Good Design Removes a Setting Before Adding One.

Fewer screens, settings, and words. Every option is a decision handed to someone else.