Consistency
On compounding patterns and the art of divergence.
Image credit: Maya Lin
“Design is the silent ambassador of your brand.”
➪ Paul Rand
Consistency is multifaceted
The word “consistency” gets thrown around quite a lot during design critiques, and it’s every designer’s obsession—especially for designers who work in digital products. Sometimes it's a rigid rule: "Does this match the library?" Sometimes it's high praise: "She's so consistent." Other times, it's just filler feedback: "Let's make it more consistent." We all nod along, but consistency seems to mean whatever the speaker wants it to mean at that moment. Really understanding consistency then becomes imperative to designers.
Consistency makes things familiar
Leveraging known, established UX patterns and sticking to them prevent users from having to learn net-new interactions and build net-new mental models every time they engage with a new product. Think about picking a date: whether it's for groceries delivery or a doctor's appointment, shouldn't that feel roughly the same? By using what people are familiar with, we more quickly meet their expectations of how something should work, thus saving them time and effort to learn something new every time. Consistency isn't about blindly following rules; it's about respecting people's time.
A western calendar view is a familiar pattern. But for a date you know (like your date of birth) you don’t need a calendar view—since you’re not browsing for availability.
Consistency is good for business
From a cost perspective, working within the constraints of a design system is what allows products to scale quickly. Design systems are basically the assembly line, but for building software. Mass production hitting the digital world; repeatable, efficient way to build. Not only can products expand more quickly, but users can more easily navigate those ever-expanding spaces.
Consistency doesn't solve for bad experiences
A confusing button label. A form field that trips people up. A workflow that makes zero sense. If your product is consistent in its flaws or anti-patterns, you're not doing anyone any favors. Replicating a bad pattern consistently can hinder the overall product quality and perpetuate existing biases or systemic disadvantages for certain user groups. Being consistently bad is often far worse than being inconsistent.
The real power of consistency isn't in uniformity, it’s predictability.
Rigid adherence to patterns can stifle discovery
While a familiar, consistent experience is the goal, it shouldn't be a constraint that supersedes context. Designing around the current context is more important than obsessing over consistency just for the sake of it. A common example is this wave of AI products that still rely heavily on chat-like interactions: sure, chat is a familiar user pattern for a technology that can sometimes feel scary. But when does familiarity and consistency become a barrier to innovation?
A consistent UI isn’t as powerful as consistent principles
Users might be able to navigate around an inconsistent pattern and still get things done in your product, but when your brand’s behavior and principles are not consistent across channels, the experience can feel deeply disconnected. Apple’s settings UI can be inconsistent at times, but everybody recognizes the overall patterns and brand voice that makes Apple, Apple.
Duolingo could have done a simple list of the different lessons of a level. By simulating a boardgame, they leverage a familiar interface, while making the experience more unique and better aligned with their brand.
Consistency can't be bureaucratic
Don’t let discussions around adhering to patterns supersede discussions around solving real user problems. The most consistent thing a product can be is consistently useful.
Consistency is about making room for differentiation
Think about a jazz session: the band starts from a known scale, rhythm. One musician breaks through, improvising on top of that pattern for a few minutes before joining the band again. The band, the audience, everyone knows what is happening, when it starts and when it ends, because the foundation of it all is a consistent melody.
Moments of silence and meticulously sparse notes are enough to make a rather methodical base feel unique and differentiated. (Miles Davis improvising on So What)
Choose consistency over intensity
Not only for your designs, but for your career as well. Consistency compounds. It’s about showing up, day after day, making steady progress and delivering value continuously. Consistency makes things last.
Consistency builds your stamina
The best professionals in any discipline have spent an immeasurable amount of time training, and practicing, and slowly improving themselves. This type of endurance shows in the quiet ability to simply keep going, to maintain focus over the long haul when others fade or burn out.
“Clarity trumps consistency. If you can make something significantly clearer by making it slightly inconsistent, choose in favor of clarity.”
➪ Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think
Consistency is not about sameness
It’s not about churning identical copies of the same idea. It’s about having discipline and structure to how you approach the work so that when things go well (or wrong) you can more easily identify what contributed to it. Consistency is about always improving from the previous version, no matter what.
Consistency creates identity
Being consistent shapes who you are, is habit forming. Over time it becomes your brand, what you will be known for. When you frame consistent around your values, it makes you ask harder questions and highlights real opportunities.
Yayoi Kusama has an impressive, prolific body of work. Yet, one could easily identify one of her pieces.
Consistency is reliability
It doesn't mean everything will always look the same or get the same results, but the expectations, the trust, is never broken. Consistency brings calmness.
Consistency is making room for delight
As the user gets familiarized with consistent patterns and elements, they can successfully fill in the blanks: either by the logical association of known elements or by combining known elements in novel ways. As consistency compounds, we as designers start to open space for divergence and exploration.