Good design is all around us, quietly shaping our daily interactions. But to truly appreciate it, we must train ourselves to notice.

The Universal Principles of Design are timeless guidelines that make objects, systems, and interfaces intuitive, efficient, and engaging. From a simple door handle to a city’s wayfinding system, these principles influence how we interact with the world—whether we realize it or not.

In this exploration, I’ll take you through real-life design examples I’ve encountered backed up with references at the bottom of this page, relating them to these universal principles.

Design & Perception

1. Legibility

According to Lidwell et al. (2010), legibility refers to how easily a reader can distinguish or recognize individual characters in text. Legibility can only be achieve when a typeface is tied to traits inherited in its design. The traits include (size, contrast, the type of font, text blocks and also spacing).

Adler et al. (1971) stated that lack of legibility during nightime can occur serious problems.a fresh approach to night legibility design is to consider to the demands of nighttime legibility,the designer must consider the link of sign brightness to readability, particularly for low-light signs.

The minimum letter height graphs in this stop sign shown here demonstrate the broad criteria that characterise current Interstate, it is made larger and higher in order for drivers to notice/ see the indication from 30-50KM away. The stop sign colour contrast choice is also optimal because it is not patterned or distracting that will reduce the legibility of the sign.

To conclude, Signs must be made larger and/or brighter in general to adjust for night readability.

2. Highlighting

Highlighting is a useful approach for drawing attention to specific areas of a design.
However, highlighting can be useless and can hinder performance in some areas if used incorrectly (Lidwell, et al.,2010). There are 6 elements when using the highlighting techniques. The elements include General, B.I.U(Bold, Italics and Underlining), Colour, Typeface, Inversing, and not to mention Blinking.

This image refers to an on going sale that is happening in a Jewelry store. The price sales is considered as the highlighting part. Simply because it draws attention to people in order for customers to notice and purchase. The Highlighting elements in this image is a perfect example. The highlight applied usedwas not more than 10 percent of its visible design. To add on, Colour contrast is distinct from one another along with the type of font used. It also adds minimal noises which allows it to have higher legibility and readability.

3. Alignment

The arrangement of components in such a way that their edges line up along common rows or columns, or their bodies line up along a common centre.

Lidwell et al. (2010) states that it creates a sense of uniformity and cohesiveness, which adds to the overall aesthetic and apparent stability of the design. Alignment may also be a helpful tool for guiding someone through a design.

The rows and columns of a grid or table, for example, make clear the relatedness of objects that share those rows and columns, and guiding the eyes left-right and top-bottom accordingly. Alignment components should also include the design medium's edges (e.g., the edge of a page or screen) and natural placements on the design medium (e.g., centerlines).

References

Adler.B et al (1971). Legibility and Brightness in Sign Design.Highway Research Board.

Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2010). Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated. In O’Reilly Online Learning (2nd ed., p. 204). Rockport.