Introducing app guidelines

for design.wikimedia.org/style-guide T275562

The goal

Have an apps section in Wikimedia’s Design Style Guide

Who is it for?

• Designers who start designing for apps and try to figure out when to use individual style guides (from the organization they’re in) and platform guidelines
• Volunteers that work on Wikimedia Commons app (Link)
• People that are interested in how to get involved with app design and the foundation

Format

• Lightweight and abstract
• Fit naturally into existing style guide
• It should include visual examples from our apps

How did we get here?

• Analysis of other style guides
• Conversations with (extended) app designer pool (Carolyn, Sudhanshu, Volker, Lucy, Pau)
• Conversation with app product strategy (Josh Minor, Jazmin Tanner)

Contents of the app guidelines

• Introduction: Introducing people to app design
• Strategy: How do apps fit into Wikimedia’s product strategy?
• Theming:
  • How apps fit into Wikimedia’s design style guide
  • Platform guidelines are what we start with, they are central to how we design, and that experience is then wrapped in our visual style, which we call theming, all of which is grounded in our design principles.
• Principles: Extending Wikimedia’s Design Principles for the app