These statements of architectural principle explain the thinking behind the specifications. These are personal notes by Tim Berners-Lee: they are not endorsed by W3C. They are aimed at the technical community, to explain reasons, provide a framework to provide consistency for for future developments, and avoid repetition of discussions once resolved.
Why doesn't HTML include tags for style? Why can't you put text inside SMIL? Why doesn't CSS include commands to transform a document? Why, in short, does W3C modularize its specification and why in this particular way? This essay tries to make explicit what the developers in the various W3C working groups mean when they invoke words like efficiency, maintainability, accessibility, extensibility, learnability, simplicity, longevity, and other long words ending in -y.
The following principles are fundamental to the design and implementation of effective interfaces, whether for traditional GUI environments or the web. Of late, many web applications have reflected a lack of understanding of many of these principles of interaction design, to their great detriment. Because an application or service appears on the web, the principles do not change. If anything, applying these principles become even more important.
Interfaces exist to enable interaction between humans and our world. They can help clarify, illuminate, enable, show relationships, bring us together, pull us apart, manage our expectations, and give us access to services. The act of designing interfaces is not art and they are not monuments unto themselves. Interfaces do a job and their effectiveness can be measured. They are not just utilitarian, however. The best interfaces can inspire, evoke, mystify, and intensify our relationship with the world.
Interfaces exist to enable interaction
Clarity is job #1
Conserve attention at all costs
Keep users in control
Direct manipulation is best
One primary action per screen
Keep secondary actions secondary
Provide a natural next step
Appearance follows behavior (aka form follows function)
Inclusive Design is where innovation and imagination flourish. Meeting the needs of the widest variety of people does not inhibit creativity. It opens our minds and inspires excellence.
Equitable: Be welcoming.
Flexible: Provide options.
Straightforward: Be obvious and not ambiguous.
Perceptible: Don’t assume anything.
Informative: Be timely, predictable, uncomplicated and precise.
Preventative: Provide easy to follow instructions and gently guide users.
Tolerant: Handle errors respectfully.
Effortless: Don’t make demands or place restrictions on your users.
Accommodating: Be approachable, uncluttered and give people room to manoeuvre.
Consistent: Follow standards, guidelines, conventions and best practices.
Paul Robert Lloyd
We can start the work of building this framework, by agreeing upon a set design principles, each working in service of a broader goal, that of building a web that is and remains accessible to all.
Creativity needs the support of knowledge to be able to perform at its best. It is not the intention of this little book to stifle creativity or to reduce it to a bunch of rules. It is not the formula that prevents good design from happening but lack of knowledge of the complexity of the Design profession. It’s up to the brain to use the proper formula to achieve the desired result.
Reduce the cost of using and acting on the evidence in the archive.
Engage new people in the records.
Preserve access to the evidence for as long as possible in as many ways as possible.
Focus on people their lives, their work, their dreams.
Every millisecond counts.
Simplicity is powerful.
Engage beginners and attract experts.
Dare to innovate.
Design for the world.
Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
Be worthy of people’s trust.
Add a human touch.
Government Digital Service
These guidelines are intended for people building digital services for the GOV.UK domain. … We believe that the work should do the talking, so underneath each of the principles there are examples of how we have applied that thinking in the work released so far.
To increase the success rate of these projects, the U.S. Government needs a new approach. We created a playbook of 13 key “plays” drawn from successful best practices from the private sector and government that, if followed together, will help government build effective digital services.
The guidelines and Success Criteria are organized around the following four principles, which lay the foundation necessary for anyone to access and use Web content. Anyone who wants to use the Web must have content that is:
Perceivable
It can't be invisible to all of their senses.
Operable
The interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform.
Understandable
The content or operation cannot be beyond their understanding.
Robust
As technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible.
As web developers, we are responsible for shaping the experiences of user’s online lives. By making choices that are ethical and user-centered, we create a better web for everyone.
It's what enables us to debate whether something “Is Facebook” or “Isn't Facebook,” it's what allows us to evaluate whether anything we’re designing could be improved.
Transitional interfaces are easier to learn and more pleasant to use.
Interactions should be delightful and surprising.
Focus the user on one primary action at a time.
Firefox
Is what we’re making a clear expression of what it means to be Firefox? What will make it more Firefoxy? What will we not do because it’s not true to Firefox?
These design principles were developed by and for the Android User Experience Team to keep users' best interests in mind. For Android developers and designers, they continue to underlie the more detailed design guidelines for different types of devices.
Focus on not stopping the user and all else will follow
Design for big gestures
Think about stream cards first
Do one thing, really fast
Design for the corner of the eye
Don’t be a constant shoulder tapper
Google Glass
Glass is fundamentally different than existing mobile platforms in both design and use. Follow these principles when building Glassware to give users the best experience.
Celebrate data while respecting user and device context.
Be smart and appropriate for the task at hand.
Understand the broader contexts of use.
Arch Linux
The following five core principles comprise what is commonly referred to as the Arch Way, or the Arch Philosophy, perhaps best summarized by the acronym KISS for Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Arch Linux defines simplicity as without unnecessary additions, modifications, or complications, and provides a lightweight UNIX-like base structure that allows an individual user to shape the system according to their own needs. In short: an elegant, minimalist approach.
Code-correctness over convenience
Simplicity of implementation, code-elegance, and minimalism shall always remain the reigning priorities of Arch development.
User-centric
Arch Linux targets and accommodates competent GNU/Linux users by giving them complete control and responsibility over the system.
Openness
Arch Linux uses simple tools, that are selected or built with openness of the sources and their output in mind.
Freedom
By keeping the system simple, Arch Linux provides the freedom to make any choice about the system.
Web Design
What principles do designers need to understand to create better designs?
Users needs are not always the same as the features they ask for
One action per page
Context is more important than consistancy
Optimise for average user's return rate
Make pages functionally readable
Only tell people things once per page
Contextual help is best
Let people teach themselves
Keep the user path as short as possible
Make decisions for people
Make people confident in their actions
Pages make sense before and after action
State should always be maintained between pages
Make sure pages content can be linked to forever
Hardware Design Principles
The Clock Of The Long Now
These are the principles that Danny Hillis used in the initial stages of designing a 10,000 Year Clock. We have found these are generally good principles for designing anything to last a long time.
Rather than solving problems from scratch, adapt other people's solutions, and then give them credit.
Design for materials and components which are reasonably cheap to buy, low-carbon and fully recyclable or biodegradable.
Design structures which can be assembled with minimal formal skill or training, and without the use of power tools.
WikiHouses should be capable of being habitable throughout the year, and as efficient as possible in the use of energy and water.
Design in such a way as to offer maximum provision for the safety, security and health (both mental and physical) of the users at all stages of the structure's life.
As a general rule, design for the climate, culture, economy and legal / planning framework in which you live, and you know best. Others will then be able to adapt the design to suit their environment.
Share your work as much and as openly as possible, it might come back better. At very least you'll have contributed to solving a common problem.
“It is easier to ship recipes than cakes and biscuits” — John Maynard Keynes
Design to dismantle. The easier it is to dismantle structures or replace individual parts, the better.
Design for mistakes. Try to design components which either make it impossible for the assembler to get it wrong or are designed in such a way that it doesn't matter if they do.