Design at Frappe

Good design is invisible

Most software gets in the way. Ours tries not to. Here's how.

The Philosophy

The Constitution

Vision and Values

Team Frappe

Unusual Journeys

Join the Team

There's a version of design that wants to impress you. We're not interested in that. We want software that's obvious to use, that you stop noticing after the first five minutes. That's harder to pull off than it sounds.

What we aim for

The Philosophy

User feels productive

User feels relaxed

User feels delighted

Software feels simple

Software feels natural

Software feels consistent

Good design is as little design as possible.

Dieter Rams - German industrial designer

Principles we work by

The Philosophy

Frappe builds a lot of products. At that scale it's easy for things to start looking inconsistent, like different teams making different calls. We try not to let that happen. A few things we keep coming back to:

Design is copy

The most important part of any design is the words. Every label and button should mean exactly what it does.

Less is better

Remove unnecessary elements, borders, wasted clicks. If it doesn't need to be there, it shouldn't be.

Let the user focus

Nothing should pull attention away from the work. The UI should disappear once someone's actually using it.

Create hierarchy

Break the system into elements. Let people get to where they're going without thinking about how.

Guide, don't overwhelm

Every screen needs relevant actions within reach. One primary action at a time. If there's no clear winner, don't force one.

Add context, not clutter

Connections, warnings, settings, all of it close to where it's needed. Enrich the data, don't crowd the screen.

Espresso design system

The Philosophy

Espresso is the design system underneath every Frappe product. Typography, colour, components, and the small rules that make everything feel like it came from the same place.

Explore Espresso

Brand voice

The Philosophy

How Frappe sounds in writing. The sentence patterns, the words we avoid, and the habits that keep our copy sounding like Frappe.

Read guidelines

Visual identity

The Philosophy

Logos, colours, typography and the rules that hold them together. Everything you need to represent Frappe correctly.

View guide and download assets

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

~ Socrates