Foundations

Purpose before production

Every project begins by establishing what should become better for the people, organisation, or environment involved. A feature, page, or system is valuable only insofar as it advances that purpose.

The purpose should be expressible in plain language. It should also be specific enough to reject attractive work that does not contribute to the outcome.

The hierarchy of decisions

When priorities conflict, HAAM generally evaluates them in this order:

1. Human safety and dignity
2. Accessibility and inclusion
3. Trust, truthfulness, and informed consent
4. Clarity of purpose and use
5. Reliability and performance
6. Long-term maintainability
7. Visual distinction and delight

The order is a guide rather than an automatic formula. Exceptions require a stated reason.

Endurance

We design for a life longer than the launch. This changes the work:

• Information architecture should survive visual redesigns.
• Content should remain understandable outside its original campaign.
• Components should encode decisions rather than merely repeat appearances.
• Dependencies should be chosen with maintenance and portability in mind.
• Critical knowledge should be documented where the next steward can find it.

Evidence and judgment

Measurement informs judgment but does not replace it. Analytics, testing, audits, and research reveal consequences. The team remains responsible for deciding which consequences matter and what should be done about them.

A strong decision records:

• the purpose being served;
• the evidence considered;
• the trade-offs accepted;
• the owner responsible;
• the condition that would justify revisiting it.

Restraint

Complexity must earn its place. Each additional interaction, dependency, visual device, and content layer creates a future obligation. We prefer the smallest complete system that can serve the purpose with dignity.