Service & Support: Usability

Consistency

Key to optimum usability is consistency. As we navigate any unknown territory, we want landmarks, familiar signs, and a sense of where “home base” can be found. Consistency in look-and-feel gives website users a sense of security that they are in the right place, on the path to finding the right information. Conversely, if sections of a website do not share a theme common to the home page, users quickly become nervous and apprehensive, wondering if they’ve left the main site, worried they have lost their way, frustrated with the unknown, and often turned off to the point of abandoning their journey through the site.

Consistency in design (including fonts, colors, layout, graphic elements) is critical, but it can’t stop there. According to Jakob Nielsen, world-renowned usability expert:

“ Consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things always behave the same, users don't have to worry about what will happen. Instead, they know what will happen based on earlier experience. Every time you release an apple over Sir Isaac Newton, it will drop on his head. That's good.

The more users' expectations prove right, the more they will feel in control of the system and the more they will like it. And the more the system breaks users' expectations, the more they will feel insecure.”

Each of the thousands of public and intranet web pages designed and developed by M3iworks reflects a consistency and common theme throughout the site, based on solid design principles, and a keen focus on usability.