Design Principles

Maryland digital design principles help state agencies create digital tools based on user experience standards and best practices. State agencies should apply these principles when they conceive, design, build, and launch Maryland websites and applications.

Start with user needs

Research, data analysis, and talking to users helps you understand the tasks they are trying to complete.

A little research can go a long way. Create a simple process to collect user feedback every couple of weeks. Use the data to make ongoing improvements to the website or application.

Design for simplicity and clarity

Solve for simplicity and clarity first; solve for polish second.

Understand the tasks people are trying to complete before developing high fidelity solutions. Start with low-fidelity mock-ups like user flows, sketches, and wireframes.

Base your first design decisions on whether people can complete important tasks. Don’t spend time finessing how something looks if it works for users.

Everything we design and develop should make tasks easier for the people we serve.

• Reduce visual clutter.
• Provide logical and actionable next steps so users can complete their tasks (avoid dead ends).
• Break complex tasks into small logically ordered steps.

Design with data

Use data to drive decision-making, not hunches or guesswork.

• Collect data on how people use the existing website or application (if one exists).
• Talk to users and solicit their feedback to learn about their needs.
• Collect data from prototype testing and usability testing.
• Track user behavior using website or application analytics.

Use this data to iterate on your designs – create a continuous cycle of testing and iteration that uses data-driven design to reduce the risk of building the wrong thing.

Design for everyone

Accessible design is good design. Everyone should be able to use any Maryland website or application regardless of features or complexity.

The people who most need our services are often the people who find them hardest to use.

Think about and design for those people from the start.

• Design mobile first – prioritize the information and choices most critical to the user.
• Plan for designs to work, even when people have low or limited bandwidth.
• Follow Maryland Plain Language Standards.
• Follow Maryland Accessibility Guidelines.

Design in collaboration

Some of what you’re designing may have been designed before by another team or agency. Talk to them about their experience and design approach. If well designed, reuse makes designing and prototyping faster and cheaper.

Or, you might be designing something entirely new, in which case you might benefit from ideas and feedback from others who’ve tackled similar design problems.

Collaborate with others in the Maryland Web Design System Contributors Community or the Maryland Design Community of Practice (for government employees). The more we share with each other, the more likely it is that our designs will be consistent and cohesive across Maryland digital properties.