From this day forward you are a part of a broader community of designers who together ensure that the digital world also works for everyone. That is why we think it is essential that you share the same responsibility with us.

To make this responsibility more practical we’ve set up a few principles, loosely based on Mike Monteiro’s ‘A Designer Code of Ethics’ (who is an awesome individual in either case so check out all his stuff)

1. You make things that work for everyone. Digital products only have value if they help people. That is why you are aware of the background, needs and goals of all the people that might use your products during every part of the process and how your design choices can impact them.
2. You value impact over form. You understand how your project has a positive impact on the world and measure the success of your choices by how they increase them.
3. You dare to experiment. Because you know the framework of your assignment, you are not afraid to explore the boundaries of what is possible within it. You dare to discover the unknown in order to look at the known in a new way.
4. You reflect on your work and yourself. What you add to the world largely depends on what you learn from your contributions. You take a critical look at your role, your work and how both have an impact on others. You actively look for ways to improve it.
5. You are part of an inclusive community. You are part of a professional, open community that welcomes everyone. At the same time, your actions also reflect on this community - so you are aware that your personal choices can also have an impact on this community.

Tips for a succesful experience

<aside> <img src="/icons/pencil_gray.svg" alt="/icons/pencil_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Document everything.

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Feedback? Take notes! Read a good book? Take notes! Did a workshop? Take notes! Had a project breakthrough? Write it down! Documenting everything is the first step in actually learning from an experience so find a quick and easy way to document everything so you can use it at a later date. We mostly use https://obsidian.md/ (and Marc still swears by Notion as you might have noticed) but use whatever works for you. And remember: when you’ll finally step out into the real world as a designer it’s quite useful to have a big archive of theory and insights you can utilize.

<aside> <img src="/icons/graduate_gray.svg" alt="/icons/graduate_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Find a practical way to incorporate (design) theory.

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Design and development can often start intuïtively and we’re a big fan of ‘learning by doing’. Having said that the risk of only doing stuff based on intuition is that you have no way of knowing if what you’re doing is actually useful.

Real growth starts when you find ways to incorporate theory in your process. That doesn’t mean you have to read Don’t Make Me Think five times before you can design something but it helps to know what the actual psychological principle is behind some of the design decisions you’re making. Because it’s pretty much impossible to make good digital products without learning how people work. So make theory bite-sizes (maybe use notes ;) and try out applying small parts of theory to your process.

<aside> <img src="/icons/pregnancy-test_gray.svg" alt="/icons/pregnancy-test_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Good design <3 testing

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