Flat Design Rules

So let’s examine what makes something flat. There are five pretty distinct characteristics. 

No Added Effects

Flat design gets its name from the shapes used. Flat design employs a distinct two-dimensional style that is simply flat.
The concept works without embellishment – drop shadows, bevels, embossing, gradients or other tools that add depth. Every element or box, from image frames to buttons to navigational tools, is crisp and lacks feathered edges or shadows.

Simple Elements

Flat design uses many simple user interface elements, such as buttons and icons. Designers often stick to simple shapes, such as rectangles, circles or squares and allow each shape to stand alone. Shape edges can be perfectly angular and square or include curvature.
Each UI element should be simple and easy to click or tap. Interaction should be intuitive for users without a lot of in-design explanation.

In addition to simple styling, go bold with color on clickable buttons to encourage use. But don’t confuse simple elements with simple design, flat design concepts can be just as complex as any other type of design scheme.

Focus on Typography

Because of the simple nature of element in flat design, typography is extremely important.
The tone of typefaces should match the overall design scheme – a highly embellished font might look odd against a super-simple design. Type should also be bold and worded simply and efficiently, in an effort for the final product to have a consistent tone visually and textually.

Focus on Color

Color is a large part of flat design. Flat design color palettes are often much brighter and more colorful than those for other sites.
Color palettes for flat design projects often contain many more hues as well. While most color palettes focus on two or three colors at most, flat design palettes may use six to eight colors equally.

Minimalist Approach

Flat design is simple by nature and works well with an overall minimalist design approach.
Avoid too many bells and whistles in the overall site design. Simple color and text may be enough. If you want to add visuals, opt for simple photography.

Source and detailed info here: http://designmodo.com/flat-design-principles/

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Thanks to this tip! I'm really fond of doing flat designs. However, I fail to make it appealing, especially in the typography part. I'll use this as my guide. Again, thanks to this!