How to Create Your Designer Values Compass

Personal Story

The first UX article I read back in 2018 was about creating human-centered designs, and I immediately fell in love with this vision: technology at the service of humans.

As a designer, I want to think human-first—not just about making navigation smoother, but about understanding the entire ecosystem: the real impact of my designs, who’s affected by them, and how they shape people’s lives.

But as my career progressed, I found myself facing projects that felt increasingly misaligned with this vision. I was saying yes to work that didn’t reflect my core beliefs, simply because I didn’t have a clear framework for evaluation. That’s when I realized: having values isn’t enough—you need a system to apply them consistently.

To ensure I stay true to why I became a designer, I use a powerful tool that a professional coach introduced me to, which I call Values Compass.

What is the Values Compass?

The Values Compass is the tool that will help you make the right decisions when choosing a new project, new team, or even your next company.

Simply put: identify your core design values, then use them as filters for every professional decision. No more saying yes to projects that drain your motivation.

How to create your Values Compass and share it?

Step 1: Identify Your Core Values (5-10 maximum) Open a list of values—you can find great ones online (example here). Don’t overthink it; choose the values that immediately resonate with you. Trust your gut reaction.

Step 2: Define What Each Value Means to YOU This is crucial—”innovation” means different things to different designers. For each value, write:

• What it means to you: Your personal definition
• What you love: Examples of when this value is respected
• What you avoid: Red flags when this value is violated

Here’s my personal example with “Learning”:

• What it means: Discovering new things, new ways of doing, getting more knowledge in my daily life
• What I love: Meeting diverse people during my interactions with users, having colleagues I can share my knowledge with
• What I avoid: Repetitive jobs or missions where I don’t learn anything new for a long period

This helps me immediately spot if a role will keep me engaged—if there’s no mention of growth, diverse projects, or knowledge sharing during interviews, it’s probably not for me.

Step 3: Make Them Actionable Don’t let your values gather dust. Integrate them into:

• Your portfolio: Show how your values guided design decisions
• Interview preparation: Use them to evaluate companies and ask meaningful questions
• Project evaluation: Create a simple checklist to score opportunities against your values
• Team discussions: Share them with colleagues to build alignment

Pro tip: Create a nice design of your values and put it somewhere where you see it. The more you see it, the more you’ll use it.

Main learning

Creating a Values Compass will help you choose the right projects that keep your motivation high. But beyond motivation, it gives you the confidence to make career decisions that truly reflect who you are as a designer.

Stop saying yes to everything. Start saying yes to what matters.