Mentoring product designers means focusing on four distinct areas:

1. Craft fundamentals - The baseline execution quality. Visual hierarchy, consistency, layout, and file organisation.

2. Design thinking - How to approach problems. Starting with evidence, exploring options, making explicit tradeoffs.

3. Reductive design - The discipline of removal, leading to elegant, simple user interfaces.

4. Self-critique - The ability to evaluate their own work.

1. Craft Fundamentals

Visual hierarchy

• Every screen needs one clear primary action or focus. If you can't name it instantly, the design is wrong.
• Use size, weight, and contrast to create priority - not color alone.
• Count hierarchy levels on any screen. More than 3-4 means you need to simplify.

Consistency

• If a pattern appears twice, define it once. Make designers document their patterns.
• Check spacing, colour, typography, grid, and components for inconsistencies. Point them out every time until it becomes automatic.
• Every button, input, card, and label should follow the same rules everywhere.

Layout basics

• Test layouts with edge cases: very long text, no images, narrow screens, wide screens.
• Use grids for alignment and rhythm.

File quality

• Set standards for layer names, components, and structure.
• Designers should annotate states, interactions, and edge cases.
• Review their files. Messy files = messy thinking.

2. Design Thinking

Start with the problem

• What user problem does this solve?
• How do you know this problem exists?
• What evidence supports your solution?

Explore options

• Never accept the first solution. See 2-3 approaches before picking one.
• Make them explain tradeoffs: simple vs. powerful, fast vs. flexible, familiar vs. better.
• Prototype the risky parts first, not the easy parts.

Make decisions explicit Designers should articulate:

• The constraints (technical, business, time)
• The tradeoffs they're making
• Why they chose this over alternatives

Good design is defensible design.

3. Reductive Design: Less on Screen

Remove elements by default

For every element, ask:

• What breaks if we remove this?
• Can the user succeed without it?
• Are we adding this because users need it, or because we think we might need it later?

Specific things to remove:

Redundant labels

• Don't label a search field "Search" if the icon is clear
• Don't write "Email Address" above a field that says "you@example.com"
• If the context makes it obvious, the label is visual noise

Instructional text users won't read

• "Enter your email below to continue" → just show the email field
• "Click the button to proceed" → make the button obvious
• Instructions usually mean the interface isn't clear enough

Unnecessary form fields

• Challenge every field: "Do we need this now, or ever?"
• "Confirm email" fields - remove them. Just let users fix mistakes.
• Optional fields that 90% of users skip - remove them or hide them by default

Decorative elements

• Icons that don't add meaning
• Dividers between items that spacing already separates
• Background shapes or patterns that don't guide the eye
• Shadows and borders that don't indicate interactivity or hierarchy

Redundant actions

• "Save and Continue" vs "Continue" - if save is automatic, remove the word
• Multiple ways to do the same thing - pick the best one
• Cancel buttons when clicking outside works

Combine elements

Merge related information

• "Status: Active" and a green dot → just the green dot with "Active" on hover
• Separate date and time pickers → one datetime picker
• "Account Settings" and "Profile Settings" → just "Settings"

Consolidate actions

• Three buttons (Edit, Duplicate, Delete) → one menu button
• Multiple steps in a flow → fewer steps with progressive disclosure

Simplify data displays

• Tables with 10 columns → surface the 3 most important, hide the rest
• Dashboards with 15 metrics → show 3-5 key metrics, link to detailed view
• Forms with 20 fields → split into sections or steps, show only what's immediately needed

Make the system do the work

Instead of showing users options, make smart defaults:

• Auto-detect timezone, don't ask
• Pre-fill forms with known information
• Set sensible defaults instead of empty states
• Make common choices one-click, rare choices hidden

Signs a screen needs simplification:

• More than one paragraph of body text
• More than 3 buttons or actions visible at once
• More than 7-8 form fields before submission
• Multiple competing visual elements
• Users asking "what do I do here?"
• A reliance on explanation and tooltips.

4. Building Self-Critique

Refined article focus toward screen-based design elements.

Before showing you work, designers should ask themselves:

• What's the one thing this screen needs to communicate?
• What could I remove and still achieve the goal?
• If someone saw this for 2 seconds, what would they think it does?
• What would confuse someone using this for the first time?
• Am I adding things because they're useful or because I can?

Usability checklist:

• Is the primary action obvious?
• Does the system respond when I interact with it?
• Can I fix mistakes easily?
• Are we using familiar patterns?
• Is there anything on screen that isn't directly useful right now?

Make them critique their own work:

• "Walk me through this and tell me what you're unsure about"
• "What would you remove if you had to cut this in half?"
• "Show me three other ways you explored solving this"

Day-to-Day Practice

Review work early and often

• 15-minute reviews of in-progress work beat hour-long presentations of finished work
• Give feedback when it's easy to change, not when it's polished

Be direct and specific

Bad: "This feels cluttered"

Good: "This screen has 4 call-to-action buttons. Users won't know which one to tap. Pick the one primary action and demote or remove the others."

Bad: "Can you make this simpler?"

Good: "These 3 text labels are redundant with the icons. Remove the labels and test if it's still clear."

Design out loud

• Share your screen when you're working. Show your messy process.
• Narrate decisions: "I'm removing this label because the field placeholder says the same thing"

Ask forcing questions:

• "What's the minimum version of this that could work?"
• "What happens if we remove this section entirely?"
• "Which element on this screen matters most?"
• "If you could only show 3 things here, what would they be?"

Recognise good work specifically:

• "This navigation is clean - you got it down to 4 items and they're all high-value"
• "Good call removing those helper text blocks. The flow is much clearer now"

Set a standard for "done":

• User need is clear and validated
• Solution is the simplest version that works
• Every element on screen has a clear purpose
• No redundant labels, instructions, or decorative elements
• Execution is consistent and polished