The 7 principles of design and how to implement them

The seven principles of design—balance and alignment, contrast, emphasis, movement, proportion, repetition, and white space—describe how designers arrange visual elements into effective compositions. Applied well, they make products attractive, intuitive, and easy to use.

These principles matter beyond aesthetics. Consumers prioritize , so products need to deliver the functionality customers want while evoking positive associations and feelings. Businesses spend millions of dollars and hours making sure the products hitting the shelves are well-designed and immediately resonate with consumers.

This article explains each principle and how to apply them in product design.

What is “good design”?

Like art, every consumer experiences a product design differently—the same product evokes unique thoughts and feelings in different people. But good design isn’t wholly subjective. There are accepted conventions for creating products of value, meaning that good , like art, follows established objective criteria.

Good design yields products that are attractive, intuitive, and easy to use. They provide an aesthetic appeal that consumers love, and there’s no need to read a 30-page technical manual or call customer service before using them for the first time. In a well-designed product, information about users’ needs and wants is incorporated into every component.

Design elements vs. design principles

Some of the most popular products follow most, if not all, of the seven design principles. To follow them, you’ll need to understand the difference between elements and principles.

Design elements are the objects used to design a composition—shapes, lines, color, value, texture, space, and form. They’re the basis for any design you can think of. Design principles are how these elements are used in the design to create the final product.

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What are the seven principles of design?

Well-designed products combine these seven principles. They let you take the elements and arrange them in appealing and useful ways.

Alignment and balance

Alignment and balance describe how the elements are arranged in a design. They may be arranged in one of three ways: asymmetrically, symmetrically, or radially.

Depending on your choice of balance, the elements may assume equal or differing prominence within the design. Alignment is closely related to balance and refers to how well the elements line up within a design or composition. Poor alignment gives the visual impression of clutter and incompleteness.

Contrast

Contrast involves placing visually distinct elements close to one another. By using strikingly different elements, you can draw attention to a focal point, lift key elements, and create markedly different designs.

For example, when you use colors opposite each other on a color wheel or present words from a passage in a larger font, you’re using contrast.

Emphasis

Emphasis is where you deliberately add a feature to an element to distinguish it from the others. You can use another design principle, such as contrast or balance, to do this.

For example, if you have a grid of red dashes but color nine dashes in the middle of the grid green, you’re applying emphasis to the center of the grid and drawing attention there.

Movement

Movement refers to the direction(s) the user’s attention is drawn throughout the design. Using other principles, you can guide the user’s eye or hand to different elements. Repeated elements and the intensity of contrasting elements create a distinct rhythm for the design.

Proportion

Proportion refers to the size of different elements. You need to balance the scale of the elements with their functionality—a small button on a device may be aesthetically pleasing but not optimally functional. You can also use proportion to create contrast or emphasize certain elements in a design.

Repetition

Repetition (sometimes called pattern) involves the recurrent use of elements in a design. It’s often used to create balance or contrast, or to de-emphasize less important elements. You can create emphasis with a unique feature or one that breaks the repetition, or use the technique to focus a user’s attention on a particular feature or in a particular direction.

White space

The previous principles all deal with the elements you add to your design and how they’re arranged. Areas without elements matter too—they’re known as white space or negative space.

White space may seem unimportant at first glance, but you can use it intentionally to organize and arrange your elements. White space contributes to pattern, emphasis, balance, and rhythm just as much as the elements do.

Pulling the principles together

Tying all these elements and principles into a satisfying design starts with research. Ideally, your product design will lean heavily on into your users’ functional needs and their experiences with similar products. If you haven’t conducted market research yet, that’s your first step.

Use appropriate to uncover what your users need from your product. You can also capture insights about your users’ experiences with similar products, specifically around usability and aesthetics. The more insights you capture, the firmer your foundation for designing your new product.

Next, create a prototype using these insights. The design should arrange the elements according to the design principles, with form and function integrated in a way that aligns with . Many businesses still focus on design first, prioritizing a form they find striking overlaid on basic functionality. With that approach, product developers may fail to capture what consumers actually want.

Once you’ve built a prototype guided by , workshop it with users who resemble your target market. Gather as much information as possible about the design using tools like focus groups and usability testing. Well-designed products seamlessly meld form and function, so evaluate usability at the same time. Engage participants in like guerrilla testing, eye-tracking, five-second testing, and other appropriate .

Use these methods continuously to refine your prototype until your product is ready to launch. When your product hits the shelves, professional reviewers will comment on how well (or badly) you’ve incorporated the seven design principles.

Remember that the end user is the ultimate judge of good product design. By engaging prospective and existing customers at every step of your process, you can develop products that are most likely to resonate with consumers.

When can you break the rules of design?

The seven principles of design remain best practices while consumers continue to embrace them. But you don’t need to follow them to the letter to craft great products. Some of the most popular products stray from these guidelines in some way.

So when can you break the rules? Consider it when the users in your research demand it of the function and features. Consumers will constantly define and redefine what constitutes good design.

You don’t always need all seven principles in equal measure. Consumers’ needs and preferences change over time, so elements and principles fall in and out of favor. Your job is to listen to what your potential users are saying.