Imagine you saw a KFC restaurant with a blue themed logo, a yellow chicken image instead of Colonel Sander’s face in black contour and “Kentucky Fried Chicken” placed beneath it. That would be so weird — you may most likely take a picture, send it to your friends and try to confirm what went wrong with KFC. This is the place of consistency. Regardless of how many times KFC has changed its Logo, we can all easily identify well with it.
Consistency plays an important role not only in logos but in the totality of a brand; this includes the Websites, Mobile apps and other interfaces. Before diving deep into the importance of consistency in design, we need to first understand what “Consistency in design” is.
Consistency in design is when elements of the design behave in a uniform way either following a set pattern or having familiar feels. Consistency in design links separate pieces of product together, thereby ensuring that the user easily understands how to use the product.
So why is Consistency important in design?
1. It helps the audience become familiar with the product thereby building a relationship between the user and the product — We have all grown so familiar with Google homepage so much that you can easily tell where the search bar is located with your eyes closed. Regardless of how many times Google has been updated, you can always relate with it. This has built a relationship with the users of the product. Consistency doesn’t restrict change; it only restricts a sudden change. Another popular example of familiarity being built with consistency is found in using asterisks (*) to denote a mandatory field — everyone is familiar with that principle and many don’t even try to confirm its purpose because they believe every field it is placed on must be filled.
2. It prevents confusion — Just like the asterisks example given in the previous point, Consistency helps prevent confusion which allows the audiences use the products easily. This can be done by designing interfaces based on what people are used to. It would be unwise to put the menu bar on the bottom left corner of a mobile app because it would confuse the user.- we all know it is usually located on the top left corner. Consistency in design helps your design work communicate clearly and look professional.
3. It saves time in design processes — Consistency saves time in the design process because every element behaves like the previous one and so, you don’t have to think too much about the process. For example, you want to design a mobile app for KFC and after going through all the major processes, the high fidelity is all that is left to do. You’d definitely choose a color palette that speaks KFC. A palette that consists of Red, black, white and probably another color to complement it all — like beige.
Consistency is a board that covers almost, if not every part of design. Consistency in color choice, in typography used, in the size of elements, icons, features, the placement of these elements and even in the type of imagery used (whether illustrations, pictures, icons) . This gives rhythm to the design, helps the user relate better with the design as well as saves you the time you’d spend on the design.
