Product design taste

Use when designing or reviewing product UI with a high standard for taste, interaction quality, restraint, and craft.

Mental model

• Good product design is not just functional. It should feel intentional, calm, fast, and trustworthy.
• Aim for interfaces that are quiet but precise: fewer visual ideas, executed better.
• Small details matter when the fundamentals are already solved. Alignment, spacing, motion, density, typography, and timing all compound into perceived quality.

Design principles

• Prefer clarity over novelty. The interface should feel obvious quickly, then rewarding over time.
• Use restraint: fewer colors, fewer visual effects, fewer competing focal points.
• Make quality felt through consistency and subtlety rather than decoration.
• Optimize for the user’s momentum. UI should help people continue what they were doing, not stop to admire itself.

Layout and density