Consistent design beats exciting design

As a designer part of my job is to think about buttons, where they’ll go on a screen, and what happens when they’re pressed.

We’ve got checkmarks, cards, toggles, dropdowns, accordions, select menus, chips, the idealized button itself, and so much more.

It’s tempting to create fancy buttons.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve designed split buttons with separate functionality based on where you press, or dropdowns crammed full of sub buttons, or accordions with accordions inside.

A lot of this is bad design. We’re not clear on how we can help the user accomplish their goal, so the most obvious solution is to cram buttons everywhere on the screen and wish them luck.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

We can try things out, talk to users to test our designs against their goals, and then simplify.

Sometimes it’s ok to create a novel type of button, something that’s unique for the screen we’re building. But more often than not a simple design with clear labels, good spacing, and propery hirarchy between elements will win out.

So have fun with your craft, go crazy with fun things. But then step back and make sure it’s clear, simplify where needed, and help your user meet their goals.