Article · 10 min read

Government Design Principles

UK Government Digital Service · GOV.UK (Government Digital Service) Free Beginner

Crisp, opinionated principles from the team that made government services genuinely usable at massive scale. Start with user needs, do less, and do the hard work to make it simple read like a founder's manifesto. It is short, opinionated, and free of jargon.

  • Start with real user needs, not the org chart or your assumptions
  • Do the hard work to make the product simple for the user
  • Be consistent, not uniform, so patterns feel familiar without being rigid
Open on gov.uk ↗

The question it answers

  1. What are the core UX principles every founder should know?

Read with it

  1. Design tactics written specifically for developers and non-designers who need to ship good-looking UI without a design... refactoringui.com Book · ~250 pages Refactoring UI Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger
  2. The most accessible, practical intro to usability ever written, you can read it in a weekend and immediately fix your product.... sensible.com Book · ~200 pages Don't Make Me Think, Revisited Steve Krug
  3. The single most-cited usability framework in the field, from the definitive UX research authority. A checklist you can hold... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~15 min read 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design Jakob Nielsen
  4. The foundational text on human-centered design that every product person should read once. It rewires how you see every... jnd.org / Basic Books Book · ~350 pages The Design of Everyday Things Don Norman
  5. A crisp, visual reference of the psychology principles behind good UX, perfect for a founder who wants the 'why' without a... lawsofux.com Article · reference site Laws of UX Jon Yablonski
  6. Facebook's former head of product design on what separates good design from decoration, which reframes polish as clarity and... The Year of the Looking Glass (Julie Zhuo) Essay · 8 min read Good Design Julie Zhuo
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →