The Consistency of Great Design

Within the world of design there are rules that apply: such as usage of typography, the grid, color and spacing issues. And of course there are a myriad of topics on the web that discuss such issues. These topics are very helpful but typically go down the path of the appropriateness of glossy vs. un-glossy buttons, header point sizes, this color scheme vs. that color scheme, and of course the “wonderful world of css and the designer”.

I’ve taken a step back from the technology saturated culture and began to study the purity of design on a multitude of displays and devices and one thing that keeps creeping in and out of focus is the lack of consistency.

As designers its our job to, if nothing else, give the user a unified experience. From the way we navigate a mapping system in our cars to the flow and architecture of a website or application we must be consistent in:

1. design/style
2. messaging and tone
3. interactions between screens (transitions, buttons)
4. spacial relationships
5. display of data and visual assets
6. navigation elements
7. color cues
8. the list goes on…

I think in today’s design aesthetics and the ever increasing capability that new technologies afford us we’re beginning to see much more engaging experiences that are wonderfully crafted, technically sound and emotionally engaging. But with such capabilities at our fingertips we must begin each project with the understanding that our world is no longer packaged and delivered in a tightly wrapped box to an audience that we intimately know, but rather to an audience that is in constant motion and requires this medium to follow them and meet them where they’re at…

Great design from the classic Aeron Chair to the ever popular iPhone all share one thing in common. Consistency! Consistency of experience when you sit in the Aeron Chair and begin to tilt and make adjustments. Consistency of experience when you transition from screen-to-screen within the UI of the iPhone. Consistency of balance, shape, message, texture and colors. Its not about glossy vs. non-glossy but rather how well these elements are dished up to the end user and how all the elements consistently come together throughout the experience, the consistency of Art and Science presented to the user in beautiful usable ways.

Ultimately in the end it’s that culmination of beauty, function, and consistency that truly inspires and elicits emotion. Beauty cannot stand alone and likewise great functionality is not the sole purpose. I think David Gelernter puts it best “The best computer scientists are technologists who crave beauty.” The Art and Science behind great design balancing one another in harmony, not “form vs. function” but rather “form and function” embodied in an end product. Timeless!

~ by christiansaylor on May 27, 2008.