One of the most frustrating aspects of a designer’s job is receiving vague feedback from clients, leaders, and peers. The subjectivity inherent in design renders it difficult to create a shared understanding and this shows up frequently in the form of differing opinions of each individual in their design philosophies. So we codified 7 design principles which we now follow at Quovantis. We also wrote a book on the same. The book "UX Design Principles", written by the Tarun Kohli, is a compilation of the principles codified by us to bring method to the madness. It is an attempt on our part to help explain to the creative teams and product evangelists why designs principles are important. The book explains the 7 principles we follow, the value they add to the design process and how they can be implemented in designs. The examples used to illustrate the principles come from our own experience. Highlights of the book- 1. An in-depth explanation of each principle with colorful illustrations 2. Examples and case studies from real life to showcase implementation 3. Takeaways at the end of each chapter to help you make informed decisions. The book is available on Amazon Kindle here- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NPK5MF4?pf_rd_p=1581d9f4-062f-453c-b69e-0f3e00ba2652&pf_rd_r=YKK90QEK8P88YB2D796T . With this book, we hope you get a better understanding of how design principles help create delightful and compelling user experiences. Happy reading!

1. design led engineering
OUR DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Tarun Kohli
Founder and CEO

3. EMPATHIZE
PRINCIPLE ONE
A good design can only be created once we are in sync with the goals of the users, their
operating context and their mental models.
Good design solves users’ problems.
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN DEVELOP EMPATHY –
• Get out of the building
• Observe users to understand their operating context.
• Ask open ended questions.
• Build Personas and their goals.
• Reduce bias. Be open.
• Validate your findings

5. DESIGN WITH DATA
PRINCIPLE TWO
A good design is created when we leverage real instances of data for the product being
built. It helps you build the right visual hierarchy among various data elements.
Death to Lorem Ipsum.
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN DESIGN WITH DATA –
• Work with Product Owner to get real examples.
• Try to gather minimal and fully flushed out examples of data.
• Make sure the designs use the same dataset consistently.

7. DEFAULT TO SIMPLICITY
PRINCIPLE THREE
A good design uses simple and easy to understand visual and interaction constructs to
delight users.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication – Leonardo Da Vinci
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN DEFAULT TO SIMPLICITY –
• Remove the unessential.
• Group things which belong together.
• Hide things if you have to.
• Use the constructs and mental models which are widely used.
• Use the concept of design affordance to make it simple.

9. BE CONSISTENT
PRINCIPLE FOUR
It’s important to show consistency across all the pages/screens of our app, otherwise
the users would struggle with learning new concepts.
Consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things
always behave the same, users don’t have to worry about what will happen.
Instead, they know what will happen based on earlier experience – Jakob
Nielsen
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN DESIGN FOR CONSISTENCY -
• Create consistency through same visual elements.
• Build familiarity with commonly used UI Elements.
• Publish a style guide around it.

11. KEEP STATES IN MIND
PRINCIPLE FIVE
A good experience is created when the design takes care of the following scenarios-
- First time use
- Empty state
- Loading
- Lots of Data
- Error
We need to design for the entire experience, not only the happy scenarios.
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN DESIGN FOR STATES–
• Think of all scenarios like a user.
• Show Empathy.
• Design for all states so that users don’t get lost while using the app.
• Apply them consistently across all flows.

13. PERFORMANCE MATTERS
PRINCIPLE SIX
Design needs to make sure that it not only looks pretty and usable but has an ability to
work at breakthrough speed. The mantra of Simplicity and Performance go hand in hand.
Design is not what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works – Steve Jobs
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN DESIGN FOR PERFORMANCE -
• Simplify everything. Adopt all the Simplicity principles.
• Make sure the development team gets to approve the design as early as possible.
• All designers need to know how browser and mobile apps work.

15. SEEK CRITIQUE
PRINCIPLE SEVEN
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN SEEK AND GIVE CRITIQUE–
• Make sure you feel happy about the designs before putting it out there.
• Share the designs well in advance.
• Listen more than you speak.
• For the critique givers, be polite but direct. Offer suggestions that could help
improve the design.
• Check your ego at the door.
• Express gratitude.
We need to seek critique to make our designs better.
For designers, feedback should be like music to ears. It’s the fastest way to
improve your designs.

16. THANK YOU
http://www.quovantis.com | http://blogs.quovantis.com | https://www.linkedin.com/company/quovantis-technologies | https://twitter.com/quovantis