Summary
Consistency can be distinguished into the following four types: Aesthetic consistency, generally refers to the appearance of a design; functional consistency, refers to the meaning and action of a design; internal consistency, means designs within the system sending out the same signal and offer users trusts in a design; and finally, external consistency, which is the more difficult to achieve, is the consistency of a design across different system (Universal Principles of Design, p.56).
By applying the strategy of consistency, a design will be able to offer users a sense of trust, draw familiarity to them (Google Research, 2012) and make something intuitively learnable (Creative Bloq, 2015), because people will receive and perceive a coherent mental model across platforms through a consistent design.
Resource Example
The same restaurant brand at different locations applying consistent building and logo styles.
Other Example
To keep the uniform and consistent look, different icons are designed based on the same measurement and size structures.
Life Example
Even with their different exterior designs from various brands, the function part where a USB cable should be plugged into is designed the same.
Consistency is key! That’s always been a huge tenet of mine. A business will lose customers quickly if their products don’t display consistent quality. Is the consistency of a product’s quality classified under internal consistency? Pointing out where quality consistency fits into this principle in this post might help people like me who wonder about that.
An example I’ve noticed in the real world of disparate product quality through the years is of the CHI flat iron for hair. They were lauded as the premiere flat iron for a number of years. I bought one maybe 11 years ago and it worked amazing for several years, but eventually when I bought a new one to replace it, the quality had severely diminished. I returned the CHI flat iron and bought a different brand instead, and now they are no longer considered the best flat irons for your money. There are a few other brands now who produce durable and high-quality flat irons that now top all the “best of” lists.
If you sort through the reviews on this hair product website, you’ll notice there were a lot of favorable reviews 5-10 years ago and most of the newer reviews are not as favorable: http://www.folica.com/reviews/tools/flat-irons/chi-ceramic-flat-iron-original-one-inch-chi/2?sort-by=rating&order=desc&media-only=false&filter-by=&for-product=#reviews
Hi Debra,
One example of consistency I’ve noticed is with store layouts. Walmart is a good example where any location is just about the same. The pharmacy and electronics are at the right of the store, if it’s larger there’s a garden center on the far right. On the left side is all the groceries and the middle the housing and apparel are located.
Also, with most all major grocery stores, they follow a racetrack pattern where all the staple items (fruit, vegetables, milk, eggs, bread) will be along the track (the edges of the store) and everything else is in the center aisle (soups, rice, chips, processed foods etc.)
Here’s a graphical example:
http://mealime.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Grocery-Store-Layout-Best-Route.png