Design Principles

Windows User Experience Design Principles

Reduce concepts to increase confidence

• Have you introduced a new concept? Why? Is it necessary?
• Can you get rid of unneeded concepts?
• Are you making meaningful distinctions?
• Does the UX continue the same concept?

Small things matter, good and bad

• What are the important "small things" seen often or by many?
• What small problems are you solving?
• Do less better.
• Don't cut the small things in your experiences.
• Plan for the thoughtful details.
• Fix the small bugs.

Be great at "look" and "do"

• What is your UX great at? Does its look reflect what it is great at?
• Does the first thing users see reflect what the UX is great at?
• Does the UX match expectations?
• Is it obvious what users can do?
• Are you providing only the necessary steps?

Solve distractions, not discoverability

• Reduce distractions.
• Don't let features compete with themselves.
• Commit to new functionality.
• These are not solutions to poor discoverability:
  • Pinning an icon in the Start menu.
  • Putting an icon on the desktop.
  • Putting an icon in the notification area.
  • Using a notification.
  • Having a first run experience.
  • Having a tour.

UX before knobs and questions

• Turn down the volume of questions.
• Ask once.
• Don't require configuration to get value.
• Was the question asked already?
• Look for opportunities to consolidate.

Personalization, not customization

• Does the feature allow users to express an element of themselves?
• Have you made the distinction between personalization and customization?
• Does the personalization have to be a new feature, or can it make use of existing features and information (such as the user's location, background picture, or tile)?

Value the life cycle of the experience

• Consider the user experience at all stages:
  • Installation and creation.
  • First use and customization.
  • Regular use.
  • Management and maintenance.
  • Uninstall or upgrade.
• Walk through the experience as if it has been used for 12 months. Does it have:
  • Realistic content.
  • Realistic volume.

Time matters, so build for people on the go

• All UX principles apply equally at 12-inch and 20-inch screen sizes.
• Be interruptible.
• Account for starting and stopping (fast return, and do not get in the way of other UX).
• Account for getting and losing connectivity.
• Performance is the universal UX killer.