Good design is invisible

You don't notice good design; you notice bad design. If a door handle works properly, you think about the room you're heading to, not the handle. If an interface is good, you think about your task, not its buttons. The moment design becomes visible is usually the moment it has failed.

Decoration and design are not the same thing

The two get confused often. Decoration draws attention to itself; design directs attention to the content. When adding a shadow, a transition or an animation to a page, the question is simple: does this make the user's task easier, or does it showcase my skill? If it's the latter, then however beautiful it is, it's decoration.

The art of subtraction

The method that serves me best in my own process: remove until it breaks. For every element on the page, the same question: what breaks if this goes? If the answer is "nothing," the element was already excess. What remains are the elements that can justify their existence; and when a page holds only those, the whitespace starts breathing on its own.

Trends are seasoning, not structure

This site uses glassmorphism; I'm aware it's a trend. There's nothing wrong with using trends; the problem is entrusting the structure to one. By structure I mean typography, alignment, spacing and hierarchy. If those are right, you swap the effect when it ages and the site stands. If the structure is wrong, no effect will save it.

Invisible design has a price: nobody applauds, because nobody stumbles. But that silence is probably the best compliment this craft can offer.