Consistency in Design

It is important to consider the role that consistency plays in your products and services. This is because consumers expect a certain user experience from you and therefore the experience that you provide should be predictable. We have seen many instances where there has been negative reactions by consumers to changes in design. For example, when Facebook first introduced the “timeline” concept, there was a pushback from many of my friends who did not like the change. However, this was an instance where consumers eventually got used to the change but one must not always expect this to be the case.

If we take Google as an example where there are many product offered under the same umbrella, we can see the same design consistency across all its products. Regardless of whether we are using Search, Maps of even Gmail, although they are fundamentally different products with a different objective, the design elements in all these products is pretty consistent. This means that someone who has not used one of these products before can easily adapt themselves to the product.

Today, we operate our businesses on different platforms and the experiences we offer run across different devices such as desktop, tablet and mobile devices. So for example, if you have a website you have to make sure that there is a fluid experience to your consumers regardless of what device they are using along with the design consistency that they expect. This means things such as the color palette and the layout has to be fundamentally similar.

If we take Microsoft’s Office Suite as another example, regardless of which product we are using, the top menu bar for example remains substantially similar in the design. Take the visual example below from the screenshots that I have taken from the Office products that I use. This is Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel but if you pay close attention you will see that the ui design elements are consistent in a way that any user would feel comfortable using Microsoft products.

The downsides of not being consistent is that users will lose trust in the company and they will shift to your competitors. They would also complain about their experiences to you and would thus result in more overhead dealing with customers and more trouble attracting new ones as the reviews will not be as great. For these reasons, consistency is design is crucial.