Having clear and established design principles within product teams helps to keep everyone to remain focused on a clear vision as to what makes our product unique, and it also serves as a decision-making tool during the design process. One of my biggest frustrations while working with design principles from past experiences, is that we tend to forget about them, and that it can be challenging to keep them at the front of our minds day to day, from one feature to another. Sure – they exist somewhere within the project rooms up on the wall, uploaded on file storage systems, and on our minds. However, none of those approaches seem to be effective. Could there be a better way in keeping our design principles to the front of our product team members’ minds? In this talk, I’ll cover the importance of making ‘sticky’ design principles and I will be sharing with you how I tackled this problem in ensuring that they stay stuck using a recent project of mine as an example.

1. Making ‘sticky’
design principles
Amirul Nasir | @kingrool | Experience Designer (UX) | UX Australia

2. @kingrool

3. Always use the
premium brand!
@kingrool

4. Always use the
premium brand!
Peel it from
the sticky side
@kingrool

5. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Importance of making ‘sticky’ design principles
Method to find that ‘sticky’ solution
@kingrool

6. Design principles?
@kingrool

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9. DESIGN PRINCIPLES
directives that guide your team in making
decisions to achieve desired vision
@kingrool

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11. Build a shared
understanding
WHAT DESIGN PRINCIPLES CAN DO
@kingrool

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13. Build a shared
understanding Focussed on
what matters
most
WHAT DESIGN PRINCIPLES CAN DO
@kingrool

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15. Make better
and faster
decisions
Build a shared
understanding Focussed on
what matters
most
WHAT DESIGN PRINCIPLES CAN DO
@kingrool

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18. We lost sight of
our vision…
@kingrool

19. We always remember to pack
our compass but only pull it out
when we have lost our way
@kingrool

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22. How might we… make our
design principles ‘sticky’?
@kingrool

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24. METHOD FOR MAKING ‘STICKY’ DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Align on your compass
Stay resilient and keep on trying
Reflect on how your team interacts with each other
@kingrool

25. Align on your compass
@kingrool

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28. Stay resilient and keep on
trying new solutions
@kingrool

29. EXPERIMENTED SOLUTIONS
1-1 sessions
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31. EXPERIMENTED SOLUTIONS
1-1 sessions A3 Posters
+
Online
discussions
@kingrool

32. 😌🤔 🙂Stakeholder
Designer
Developer
@kingrool

33. 😅😅 😅Stakeholder
Designer
Developer
Design
Principles
@kingrool

34. 1-1 sessions A3 Posters
+
Online
discussions
Scorecard
EXPERIMENTED SOLUTIONS
@kingrool

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37. Reflect on how your team
interacts with each other
@kingrool

38. What’s your team’s working style?
What works well? What could be better?
What are the common questions?
What are you disagreeing about?
REFLECT ON …
🤔
@kingrool

39. What are we building?
Who are we building this for?
How does it help?
@kingrool

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42. Encourage
collaboration
THE POWER OF ‘STICKY’ DESIGN PRINCIPLES
@kingrool

43. Shared
responsibilityEncourage
collaboration
THE POWER OF ‘STICKY’ DESIGN PRINCIPLES
@kingrool

44. Shared
responsibility
Clients become
advocates
Encourage
collaboration
THE POWER OF ‘STICKY’ DESIGN PRINCIPLES
@kingrool

45. ULTIMATE
STICKY LEVEL@kingrool

46. @kingrool

47. DESIGN PRINCIPLES
directives that guide your team in making
decisions to achieve desired vision
@kingrool

48. METHOD FOR MAKING ‘STICKY’ DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Align on your compass
Stay resilient and keep on trying
Reflect on how your team interacts with each other
@kingrool

49. How can you make your design
principles ‘sticky’?
@kingrool

50. @kingrool

51. Thank you! %
Amirul Nasir | @kingrool | User Experience Designer | UX Australia
Special shoutout ❤:
Aimee Gonzalez, Kenton Miller, Kristin Mark, Vanessa Reid, Scott Fairbanks,
Dani Natividad, Anja Hoffmann, Jake Capuano, AKQA XD Team
@kingrool