Designing Software With a Point of View
Taste is not decoration. It is the set of decisions that tells a customer what matters—and what can safely disappear.
Lena Okafor
Design Correspondent
Neutrality is still a choice
Products that attempt to serve every workflow tend to communicate nothing. A point of view begins with a deliberate refusal: fewer controls, stronger defaults, and a visible hierarchy of what matters.
Constraints create coherence
A mature design system is not a warehouse of interchangeable parts. It is a language with grammar. Its constraints help every contributor make decisions that feel related.
Make the default memorable
Most people never customize their tools. Typography, spacing, motion, and tone should reinforce the same belief.
Taste compounds
Distinctive products emerge through hundreds of small decisions made consistently over time.
About the author
Lena Okafor
Lena covers product design, digital culture, and the changing shape of creative work.
Design Correspondent
@lenaokafor
