design-principles

Edit rule: each line is a principle with its reason and when it yields. Decisions go to the decision records, rules a check can hold go to the check, and a line is added only on a person's yes, after sharpening an existing line is ruled out.

• Design guidance takes its direction from the artifact's subject and the person's moment — who is there, what they came to do, how long they stay — and lets that set the structure and how strong the feeling is; it ships no house style, and a guide describes how a kind of work is used or what a feeling is made of, never a look to apply by kind — catalogs pulled unrelated subjects to one look, and guidance blind to the work produced well-made artifacts arranged wrongly for it. Yields to explicit requirements, an existing design system, and a strength the request names.

Before calling design work done, check it against these principles from a fresh start — a new session, or a reviewer who did not do the work. Fix what departs unless the person chose the departure, and check again only after a fix, until a check finds none. Name each departure kept, with the principle and why.