HBE Purchase Planning Library Design System
Product Character
The library should feel like a family of compact field journals.
Desired qualities:
- Calm
- Thoughtful
- Warm
- Intelligent
- Durable
- Personal
- Uncluttered
The design should not resemble:
- A school worksheet packet
- A coloring book sold as a distraction
- A mortgage application
- A corporate sales brochure
- A childish activity book
Trim Size
Primary finished size:
5 inches wide × 7 inches tall
Page Orientation
Portrait
Binding Assumption
Design first for:
- Saddle-stitched review booklet
- Perfect-bound finished edition
- Digital PDF viewed one page at a time
Important content should remain away from the inside binding edge.
Page Rhythm
Use a mixture of:
- Guided reflection pages
- Drawing pages
- Short educational pages
- Check-in pages
- Home-tour observation pages
- Family conversation pages
- Open note pages
Avoid placing dense prompts on every page.
White space is part of the experience.
Shared Visual Language
All editions should share:
- HBE identity
- Consistent heading system
- Common icons
- Related cover structure
- Page numbers
- Edition identifier
- A recognizable home or doorway motif
Age-Appropriate Adaptation
Early Writers
- Large type
- Short directions
- One principal activity per page
- Large drawing areas
- Simple icons
- Minimal writing demands
Growing Explorers
- Short paragraphs
- Checkboxes and scales
- Maps, scavenger activities, and comparisons
- Moderate writing areas
Young Advisors
- Observation tools
- Ranking activities
- Early trade-off exercises
- More nuanced emotional vocabulary
Teen Advisors
- Mature typography
- Minimal cartoon imagery
- Direct writing
- Privacy and independence prompts
- Space for disagreement
- Practical decision tools
Accessibility
- Do not communicate meaning through color alone.
- Maintain strong text contrast.
- Use readable type sizes.
- Avoid overly decorative fonts.
- Provide alternatives to drawing-based answers.
- Permit checkmarks, words, sentences, or sketches.