Day 19 - Principles of Design
Understanding design to build products...
Hello learners!
Welcome to the 19th lesson of the series 30 Days of PM by Crework! Today, we are jumping into design and I am very excited for it.
But before we start, I want to share a good news with you all. Today, we completed 250 subscribers. This is a great milestone for us as we only expected it to reach 200 and the challenge hasn’t even ended yet so I think we can even touch 300!!
In case you are not a subscriber, do it right now and complete the challenge.
Why do I need to know design?
I know the first question in your mind might be that why you need to learn design principles, or maybe a different question - How much design should I know?
As a Product Manager, you don’t need to be an expert designer, but you should know basic principles of design and have an eye for it. As you will be working closely with product designers, you really need to understand how things are supposed to look and work visually in order to collaborate better.
What are the principles of design?
When looking at a visual, we can usually immediately say whether it is appealing or amiss. However, few can verbalize why a layout is visually attractive.
Principles of design are common rules used by designers to shape their work. Applied successfully, these principles give designers the power to create both well-functioning and aesthetically pleasing designs. A combination of excellent functionality and nice aesthetics leads to better UX for all.
Graphics that take advantage of the principles of good visual design can drive engagement and increase usability. Visual-design principles inform us how design elements such as line, shape, color, grid, or space go together to create well-rounded and thoughtful visuals.
Primary principles of design
Scale
The principle of scale refers to using relative size to signal importance and rank in a composition.
In other words, when this principle is used properly, the most important elements in a design are bigger than the ones that are less important. The reason behind this principle is simple: when something is big, it’s more likely to be noticed.
Visual Hierarchy
The principle of visual hierarchy refers to guiding the eye on the page so that it attends to different design elements in the order of their importance.
Visual hierarchy can be implemented through variations in scale, value, color, spacing, placement, and a variety of other signals.
Visual hierarchy controls the delivery of the experience. If you have a hard time figuring out where to look on a page, it’s more than likely that its layout is missing a clear visual hierarchy.
Balance
The principle of balance refers to a satisfying arrangement or proportion of design elements. Balance occurs when there is an equally distributed (but not necessarily symmetrical) amount of visual signal on both sides of an imaginary axis going through the middle of the screen. This axis is often vertical but can also be horizontal.
Just like when balancing weight, if you were to have one small design element and one large design element on the two sides of the axis, the design would feel a bit unbalanced.
Balance can be:
Symmetrical: elements are symmetrically distributed relative to the central imaginary axis
Asymmetrical: elements are asymmetrically distributed relative to the central axis
Radial: elements radiate out from a central, common point in a circular direction.
Contrast
The principle of contrast refers to the juxtaposition of visually dissimilar elements in order to convey the fact that these elements are different (e.g., belong in different categories, have different functions, behave differently).
In other words, contrast provides the eye with a noticeable difference (e.g., in size or color) between two objects (or between two sets of objects) in order to emphasize that they are distinct.
The principle of contrast is often applied through color.
Gestalt Principles
Gestalt principles explain how humans simplify and organize complex images that consist of many elements, by subconsciously arranging the parts into an organized system that creates a whole, rather than interpreting them as a series of disparate elements.
There are several Gestalt principles, including similarity, continuation, closure, proximity, common region, figure/ground, and symmetry and order.
Read more on this from the references below
When can you break the rules of design?
To create unique designs, you need to do something different and unique. But how do you do this if everyone is following the same design principles? Breaking the rules means walking a fine line, but in some instances, you can do so to achieve a particular goal.
For example, breaking the common rules of scale can be a good way to design something that leans on the creative side rather than the practical side. In the example below, it’s easy to see that some hierarchy and scale rules were broken. However, the final result looks appealing.
Day 19 - Completed ✅
Congratulations on completing the nineteenth lesson of the series. 🥳
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