- The fill color
- The use of straight line segments
- The line color
- The line size
- The rotation of the objects
- The number of line segments
- The location of the baselines of the objects
- The area enclosed by the lines
- The angles at the intersections of lines
- Consistency with the ways that different classes of users work (perhaps the most important consistency consideration)
- Consistency with operating system (OS) user interface guidelines
- Consistency with other corporate products
- Consistency with other applications that are used with your product (a common refrain that I’ve heard over the last decade is “Why isn’t your product consistent with Microsoft® Excel®?)
- Consistency between the system model and the user’s mental model
- Visual consistency in the use of icon styles, object templates, and color
- Control consistency (for example, different dialogs or Web pages should use the same controls for the same functions)
- Interaction consistency
- Error prevention consistency (for example, in one case you provide a cue about the required format for phone numbers; elsewhere, you provide no cues and display an error message if users key in a number with the wrong format)
- Terminology inconsistencies (“Login” and “Log in” are both used as labels in different parts of the site or product and “sign-in” is used in the Help system for the product)
- Consistency across different media (at a corporate level, this can involve marketing materials, user documentation, technical guides for support, advertising, and the software interface)
- Consistency of Web pages across different devices such as PCs, mobile phones, and PDAs
“Which layers and dimensions of consistency are most important for meeting our business and user experience goals?”
“How do we promote a shared understanding about consistency (style guides, pattern libraries, consistency inspections, checklists, consistency fairs, and so on)?”
“When we have conflicts between the different types of consistency, how do we determine what type of consistency takes precedence?”For example, you might have a consistency principle stating that you should use checkboxes for binary choices – a fine guideline most of the time, but not always the right thing to do. You might want to violate the rule about checkboxes (control consistency) when the choice is not clearly binary. In the following example, there is no clear opposite; a user would not quite know what would happen in the OFF state:
In this example, the opposite of Spot Fill is Flood Fill, which is not a clear “OFF” choice, so the appropriate controls to ensure user understanding would be two radio buttons. Here, consistency of understanding overrides consistency of controls.
"One of the biggest mistakes that organizations can make is to assume that consistency with specific rules is always the right. Sometimes it is better to be inconsistent."
Posted by: wench wear | May 25, 2010 at 12:12 PM
I belive consistency is a gread method to improve #ux and #usability. But it shouldnt never be the goal.
If there are is a situation in which a different different methods suports the goal UX better, this should be used.
I agree that this thinking isnt very popular. That why I like writing like this and http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch09_Context_Over_Consistency.php to change thinking :)
Posted by: Tobias | April 04, 2009 at 12:57 AM
"These are all great goals, but there is a problem with the consistency mandate – consistency is complex, multi-dimensional, and sometimes at odds with other important goals like usability."
"One of the biggest mistakes that organizations can make is to assume that consistency with specific rules is always the right. Sometimes it is better to be inconsistent."
Autodesk missed both of these concepts when they implemented the Ribbon into Revit. This consistency is certainly affecting usability and performance.
Posted by: Chad | March 29, 2009 at 04:30 PM