I recently hired a designer and we're collaborating on a UI refresh for Google Colab. As part of that I've been revisiting my design philosophy after 15 years of PM across startups + Google, from Google Photos to the Assistant to Colab. Here is my design advice to live by:
* Start with problems not solutions. Too many times we artificially constrain ourselves by settling on a specific approach too early. "Fix this button" becomes "what goal does the user have?"
* Sometimes the most creativity is found in enumerating the solution space. Design is the process of prioritizing tradeoffs in a high dimensional space. Understand that dimensionality.
* Good design is honest. Don't oversell it. Be honest with what the product can do.
* Good design is consistent within a broader system. Don't subvert convention, use those conventions to reduce friction and cognitive overhead.
* Good design is straightforward. It may require a learning curve, it need not be minimally complex, but it must be straightforward to understand and use.
* Beauty is only skin deep and won't take you very far. Good design exists on a spectrum between utilitarian and beautiful, and while you should seek beauty, it will not save you from your sins.
* Good design is opinionated. While a product can have many uses and many paths, start with an opinion about the best. As a corollary, only add settings under extreme duress; they are such a pain to manage for users and you.
* Words are great. Use them. So many uninterpretable icons out there. If you're searching for an icon to express a complex concept, try a word instead.
* Good design is succinct. We live an overwhelmed existence. Adding delight is good, overwhelming with frivolity is not (I'm looking at you, every restaurant website ever). Be as succinct in your design as possible.
* Good design is conservative. When adding to your product, consider how you can integrate it within the existing space vs. creating more net new product surface area.
One of my favorite design exercises of my life was a months-long debate about how to invoke the Assistant on mobile phones: how to express to the user the notion of active listening, thinking, and response, when the mic was live, vs. when you needed to invoke. A swiss designer spent an hour telling me about his grandfather who made watches and how his love of that cold mechanical precision informed the warm minimalist but complex designs. He perfectly personified every principle above in a design that billions of people have seen but likely never spent a moment to appreciate its perfection.
Lastly: never blame the user. When someone makes a mistake, try to understand what in the design process might have failed, and what can be improved. When you use a product next, look at all of the details, analyze what the opinion of the designer was, and see if you can spot where design might be improved, or find the hidden beauty.