• UI = User Interface
• UX = User eXperience
• UIX = both of the above, together

The term “user” is used only because of established custom. Where possible elsewhere, I've used the term chooser: either enquirer or respondent.

1. The whole interface is to be designed to prioritise the most widely available devices — currently, smartphones.
2. Relatedly, each page needs to be as simple as possible. The information provided must be just that which supports the chooser's decision or navigation.
3. No free text from any other person can be seen before mutually-agreed contact. This helps in two separate ways: to boost security; and to enable enquiries where the two parties have different preferred languages.
4. Relatedly, the system will be designed with multi-lingual capability from the ground up.
5. There will be no advertising carried on the site.
6. Beyond a bare minimum of questions deemed necessary for an enquiry type, all information entered by the chooser is optional.
7. A chooser can explicitly refuse to answer a question: either at all, or for specific enquiries, when it is called “muted”. To refuse or to mute a question is like answering a question in a way that never matches.
8. Leaving questions unanswered never make it easier to find others. Adding information, or answering more questions, must never reduce the number of enquiries that fit, also known as correspondences.
9. Property answers can be changed, but previous versions are kept, not erased. Choosers can explain their changes, but it will be up to the people they meet as to whether their explanations are credible.
10. Relational wants can be changed at will. The most recent answer is kept, but previous versions are discarded.
11. Time and place are treated specially. Times of all property answers are recorded.
12. Enquiries can be based on location, or not, and the aim is to support different kinds of location. If geographic coordinates are used, the closest matches can be presented first, and exact locations are obscured to preserve anonymity until contact is agreed.
13. Answers to questions never need to be repeated, as they are available for every enquiry. However, the chooser will always have the option to “mute” an answer for any particular enquiry, in which case for that enquiry it will behave as though the question has been refused.
14. A clear distinction is to be made between: navigation links (in the wireframes, currently shown as plain hyperlinks; and actions which change some data (in the wireframes, shown as buttons).
15. The above principles will be visible. In addition, choosers will be assured that:
    1. No chooser data will ever be passed on or sold to anyone else, so use of this service will never affect use of any other service.
    2. No other chooser will ever see any enquiry unless that other respondent satisfies the first enquirer's requirements.
    3. The business model will rely on selling recruitment-related queries to participating businesses.
    4. There may be an initial period where donations and grants are requested to enable the service to grow to a size where recruiters are willing to pay.