Principles
Three principles to guide design decisions
These principles guide design decisions for Embrace products. When facing trade-offs or conflicting priorities, these help us make consistent choices.
1. Keep it simple
Remove everything that doesn't serve the user's goal.
Whether designing for CRM staff in high-pressure environments or Social users with low digital proficiency, simplicity wins:
Make hard choices about what to include (and what to leave out)
One clear path forward
"What can we remove here?"
2. Intuitive for beginners, powerful for experts
Easy to understand for first-time users, yet powerful for frequent users.
Some users meet our product for the first time and need to be productive within 30 minutes. Others use it every single day. We should optimize for both.
Intuitive for beginners
Obvious next steps
Common patterns (Jakob's Law)
Clear labels and helpful microcopy
Introductionary tutorials
Consistent behavior
Progressive disclosure (advanced features don't clutter basic workflows)
Powerful for experts
Keyboard shortcuts for common actions
Smart defaults and AI-assisted prefilling
Information available within as few clicks as possible
"Does this make the routine easier for frequent users? Does it work for first-time users?"
3. Inclusive & forgiving
Everyone should be able to use it, and mistakes should be recoverable.
Accessible by default
WCAG 2.1 AA baseline
AAA for enhanced accessibility setting(s)
Prevent mistakes
Inline validation before submission
Clear microcopy explains requirements upfront
Confirmation dialogs for destructive actions
Help recover
Apologetic, human tone
Always show clear next steps (call-to-action)
Offer path to resolution
"Can everyone use this? How do we handle mistakes?"
The 'design decisions' document highlights specific decisions taken between 2020-2025, applying these principles to our products.
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