Creating an exceptional user experience (UX) isn’t just about delivering beautiful, functional design. It’s about establishing clear, shared principles that guide a team in creating meaningful, consistent connections with users at every touchpoint. As the Director of Product Design at The Zebra, I’ve found that UX principles are critical to maintaining consistency, quality, and purpose across our design process. Here’s how we crafted and implemented these principles and why they’re essential for creating user-centered products.

What Are Experience Principles?

Experience principles are value statements that articulate the key outcomes we want our product to achieve for users. These aren’t just aspirational; they’re practical frameworks that help guide every design decision. Unlike OKRs, which define what we aim to accomplish, experience principles focus on how we go about achieving those goals. In day-to-day work, these principles anchor our agile process, ensuring our choices align with the bigger picture.

Defining UX Principles: A Step-by-Step Process for Success

Crafting effective UX principles starts with alignment at the leadership level, followed by a collaborative process with the entire design team. Here’s the approach we took at The Zebra:

1. Leadership Alignment on the Vision

The journey began with leadership acknowledging the crucial role UX principles play in shaping our product. Gaining buy-in from leaders was essential—it signaled to the organization that these principles are foundational to our approach.

2. Building a Shared Understanding

Once we had leadership’s buy-in, we held workshops and presentations to ensure that everyone understood what UX principles are, why they matter, and how they differ from OKRs. This laid a strong foundation for the process.

3. Open Discussions with the Design Team

Next, we gathered the design team to brainstorm, discuss, and refine potential principles. Each team member contributed their unique perspective on user needs and challenges, creating principles that resonate across the team and reflect our shared values.

4. Iterate and Refine

With initial ideas in place, we moved into a collaborative refinement stage, adjusting each principle until we felt confident that they were clear, inspiring, and actionable.

5. Broad Company Rollout

Once finalized, we shared these principles across the company through presentations, documentation, and Q&A sessions. By providing examples of how each principle can guide day-to-day decisions, we made it easy for every team member to see their role in delivering an exceptional user experience.

How Experience Principles Guide Our Work at The Zebra

Our experience principles keep us grounded in our mission to deliver meaningful, user-centered experiences. Here’s a look at these principles and how we measure their impact:

1. Think Person-First

Designing with empathy means creating one-to-one connections with users. Accessibility and inclusivity are essential, not “nice-to-haves.” This principle drives us to design with users’ emotional contexts in mind, finding opportunities to personalize each experience.

In Practice:

• Accessibility and inclusivity are embedded in every choice.

• We honor the emotional needs of users.

• We personalize experiences to resonate individually.
  
  

How We Measure This Principle:

• Users feel the experience is designed for them.

• They feel empowered with the information needed to make decisions.

• The site offers relevant information tailored to user needs.

2. Build Trust in Every Interaction

Trust is foundational, especially in the digital landscape. This principle compels us to be candid, considerate, and consistent in every interaction, creating a space where users feel safe and valued.

In Practice:

• We communicate transparently and clearly.

• Designs prioritize user comfort by being predictable and consistent.

• Each component is crafted to build trust.
  
  

How We Measure This Principle:

• Users feel comfortable sharing personal information and making purchases.

• They trust the information on our site.

• Users believe we act with their best intentions in mind.

3. Simplify the Story

In a complex world, simplicity is a gift. We aim to eliminate complexity that could obstruct the user experience. Our goal is to share information in digestible doses, positioning ourselves as advisors, not lecturers.

In Practice:

• We present information concisely and clearly.

• Every screen demonstrates an easier way to complete tasks.

• We reduce visual and functional clutter wherever possible.
  
  

How We Measure This Principle:

• Users find the website clean, simple, and easy to navigate.

• They feel the website’s language is accessible.

• The site is consistently described as attractive and easy to use.

4. Design for the future

Meeting expectations is good; exceeding them is better. Designing for the horizon means anticipating future needs and challenging ourselves to innovate. We strive to offer functionalities that add value beyond the expected.

In Practice:

• We consider and exceed long-term user needs.

• We take a forward-thinking approach, addressing not just what users want but what

• they’ll need next.

• Our designs are in tune with evolving behaviors and future trends.
  
  

How We Measure This Principle:

• Users feel the site offers unique functionality.

• They’re inclined to revisit the site.

• High Net Promoter Scores reflect that the site exceeds expectations.
  
  

5. Experiment with Intent

We believe in innovation, recognizing that progress often involves calculated risk-taking. Experimentation is essential, but each test is carefully planned to focus on meaningful outcomes. This principle encourages the team to take bold steps while aiming for impactful results.

In Practice:

• We embrace trial and error, treating “failures” as learning opportunities.

• Experiments start with a hypothesis, followed by testing, analyzing, and applying

• insights.

• Sharing results openly fosters a culture of growth and resilience.
  
  

Guidelines for Experimentation:

• Define a hypothesis and conduct background research.

• Take measured steps and learn from results.

• Document and share findings to support team growth.

Why UX Principles Matter

Defining UX principles is more than a formality. It’s a way to align our team on what matters most to our users and ensure that everyone is moving in the same direction. By committing to these principles, we cultivate a culture of intentionality and excellence that is reflected in every user interaction.

At The Zebra, our experience principles serve as a compass, guiding us to create designs that resonate with users and build lasting connections. These principles enable us to be agile without compromising quality, to innovate while staying grounded in purpose, and to deliver products that users trust, enjoy, and return to time and again.

Making Principles Work: The Power of Company-Wide Alignment

For our experience principles to truly impact the user experience, they need to extend beyond the design team. Embracing and understanding these principles across the entire company allows every team—from engineering to marketing to customer support—to contribute to a unified approach to delivering exceptional experiences.

At The Zebra, we actively share these principles through team meetings, onboarding sessions, and cross-departmental workshops. This alignment ensures that every team member sees their role in creating a cohesive user experience. By fostering a company-wide commitment, our principles become more than words on a document. They shape our culture, influencing every touchpoint and creating a seamless, trustworthy, and meaningful experience that our users can feel.