Design Principles
Invest in trust.
We invest in building trustworthy products so that customers will come to us, stay with us, and grow with us.
We do this through consistency, transparency, and accountability.
We follow conventions when appropriate, introduce changes carefully, and strive to be worthy of our customers’ most important personal and financial data.
When we launch experiments, they feel consistent to our customers.
Questions to help you apply this principle:
- Are we building or eroding trust with this design?
- Is this design behaving in a predictable, reliable way?
- Does it improve their trust in Homebase?
- Does it build the team members’ trust with each other?
- Does this design connect people to each other and their work better?
- Are we encouraging open communication and collaboration in this design?
Grow together.
At every stage of our customers’ growth, we ease their workload so they can focus on their business, their people, and their own customers.
We build our features as one product, crafted with care and attention to detail.
We err on the side of simplicity, and allow the right level of customization for where a customer is in their growth.
Questions to help you apply this principle:
- Does this design actively consider the end-to-end experience?
- Can this design help someone be more effective by anticipating the next step?
- Can it grow with the teams?
- Does it give them the flexibility to work their own way?
- Does it inspire them to be ambitious or progress to the next level?
Support smart decisions.
Our customers are the experts on their businesses. We support their learning and expertise, while making sure they get the basics right.
We give them the information they need to make the best decisions for them. We might recommend an option, but ultimately we support their choices.
We handle details like labor laws and other kinds of HR compliance so that they can let their expertise shine where it matters most.
Questions to help you apply this principle:
- Is this design presenting choice in a transparent way?
- Does this design respect and support their choices?
Design for emotion.
Using Homebase is not the primary job of our customers, so we try to make it a high point of their day or week.
We celebrate their wins, big and small. We are direct and clear when problems occur (or might occur) so they can focus on resolving it quickly.
We ensure they feel supported, not talked down to or criticized.
Questions to help you apply this principle:
- Does this design feel celebratory when appropriate?
- Does this design rmake problems clear and drive to a resolution?
- Are we meeting the customer where they are?