027 Consistency
Usability and learnability improve when similar things have similar meanings and functions.
• Consistency enables people to efficiently transfer knowledge to new contexts, learn new things quickly, and focus attention on the relevant aspects of a task.
• Make things aesthetically consistent to enhance recognition and communicate membership.
• Make things functionally consistent to leverage existing knowledge about functionality and use.
• Make things internally consistent to improve usability, and to signal that a thing has been well designed and not cobbled together.
• Make things externally consistent to extend the benefits of internal consistency to other things.
• Use consistency in all aspects of design. When design standards exist, generally follow them—but remember: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
See Also Back-of-the-Dresser • Feature Creep • Mimicry Recognition Over Recall • Similarity
