Quora design principles

(My April 2011 posting at ToledoTalk.com)

http://quora.com - Q&A site

http://www.quora.com/Rebekah-Cox/Design-Quora-Web2-0-Expo-Presentation

YouTube video

"Design is a set of decisions about a product. It's not an interface or an aesthetic, it's not a brand or a color. Design is the actual decisions."

"First, it imposes a clear relationship between a product and its interface. The ultimate expression of your product isn't any one big thing; it's the sum of all the little decisions you've made along the way."

"So thinking critically about those little decisions means that... it's not just about the location of a dropdown but also about all the reasons that component has to exist in the first place. How someone uses your product to accomplish a task should be driven by [what action] that person must take."

"Second, this definition concentrates attention where it matters most: the goals and purpose for a particular product. There will always be a lot of things you can do. But design should be the process of figuring out what you should do."

"You can have the coolest looking product in the world, but if there's no incentive or utility for people, it doesn't matter."

"Great design is all the work you don't ask the people who use your products to do. All the decisions you don't ask someone to make because you have already spent countless hours determining the best one."

"But how you think about design influences every tiny detail that will ultimately comprise your product."

"The problems we decide to solve are as important as how we solve them."

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