DQ: Interface Design Guidelines

Imagine you are leading a team of designers for a new software product. During the kickoff meeting, the team starts to discuss design guidelines. About half of the team complains that guidelines can be too specific, incomplete, hard to apply, and sometimes wrong. The other half feels that building on experience from design leaders contributes to steady improvements. Take a stance on this debate and support your position. Then discuss how you would solve this conflict to get your meeting back on track.

Of the eight principles of design, called "Golden Rules" (strive for consistency, cater to universal usability, offer informative feedback, design dialogues to yield closure, prevent errors, permit easy reversal of actions, support internal locus of control, and reduce short-term memory load) choose the one that is most important and create an argument supporting your choice. Use specific examples to support your argument.