Ep 299| Law of Similarity Most Important Perspective for Aesthetics

According to a study, brand consistency increases recognition by up to 3.5 times compared to any other brand that frequently change their design systems and styles. Research shows that having a consistent and similar visual elements can increase your user engagement by up to 25 percentage. This is all denoting to one factor designer has to understand law of similarity. This is a very vital for each and every brand, each and every website, each and every product. And in this podcast I'm going to show you lot of examples why successful brands have implemented this and got more impact with the people through their designs and impact and product and service where other people who keep changing are not getting it. Okay, so also in this podcast I'm going to give you a live activity where you're going to do something practically at listening to this podcast so that you will be able to understand this concept better. See guys, your entire business depends on the conversion rates. Your business or service or products, whatever that particular business is. If the conversions are not happening, there is no point in having the business at all. Right? Research by Marketing Sherpa indicates that websites with consistent and similar element across pages have 10 to 15 percentage conversion rates compared to those who don't follow it. So what does it mean? The importance of law of similarity is being very, very classical and vital. Since we are learning lot of figma, AI plugins, all these tools, right? But we always forget to go back to the basics and understand. Last podcast also we talked about law of proximity and this is that is one of the very classical example and practical tips for a designer. And this podcast is also very, very vital. Take a notes and this may seem very easy to listen, but when you consciously go and implement it, you will have hell a lot of problems. Okay, so take a notes and implement the activity. What I'm going to give you foreign guys, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for staying tuning here. Today we're going to discuss law of similarity. See guys, consistency builds user trust. This makes the interaction very very predictable for the user. That is how it creates a very cohesive design experience. See, people are interacting with the product and getting the trust only by that cohesiveness. It is achieved through law of similarity. What does it mean by law of similarity? Jagdish? So I will tell you a very simple example guys. Okay, See if you see any brand like let's say if you take a product like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, have you seen their toolbars? It all looks similar, right? When you have to go to the left align the option will be same, the icon Will be same, the color will be same. When you have to keep bold, you have to click the B button. Whether it's Microsoft Word or PPD or Excel. So that is consistent across their products. Even the color, even the texture, even the shape, even the icon, even the size, everything is very similar. Okay, so why is that kept? Because the user should not get lost. That is the whole objective of Microsoft to design that that is consistent. Then what happens is if you keep it very different, people will not be able to correlate with what we are saying. So this is all about law of similarity, guys. See, it makes you familiar cohesive design and also it comforts the user and and satisfied. Basically what it has to improve the ease of use. User has to feel connected with the brand. Four things happen guys, when you apply law of similarity. First the trust happens. Okay, so people understand that this product is seamlessly across all the devices. Let me trust it. If your website and mobile app doesn't look same, people will get mistrust. If imagine if you go to a domino pizza and if the blue color looks green color, if the logo goes little, little different, you will really have a problem whether have I entered into domino pizza or something else. So law of similarity is very important. Second, efficiency. It improves your visual navigation easily and reduces your cognitive load. People are finding it more easier to recognize. Third, brand recognition, visual consistency mainly able mean mainly strengthens your brand identity. And also certain colors like shapes, styles will make that strengthen more. Fourth, comfort. Familiar designs always make users very comfortable, guys. It always reduces the what you call relearning pattern. See, people do not have to relearn every time, right? It helps them to comfort that. Okay, this is a different part of section. If I go inside the app or website, it's still the same. See, these four factors are very important. Let me repeat. User trust, efficiency, brand recognition, comfort. If you understand this guys, you will have a lot of clarity in going forward. Okay, so what are the principles and concepts? First of all, let's talk about visual similarity. See, you will have to understand color, typeface, iconography, texture. These all needs to be unified. If you go to Google, if you can able to type out law of similarity, you will see lot of examples. But I wanted you to do an activity. Take one screenshot of any kind of a web interface or physical product design or anything, whatever you are designer or. Because a lot of people are industrial designers and a lot of people are UI based designers. Take one interface. Try to understand three elements. What is law of similarity inside it? Try to Consciously put your efforts to go and find it out by seeing that example in the online you will know this is law of similarity example and I've also already told you that. Okay, so try to mark it down and send it to me in the below email connectdesignforchange.com I'll be more than happy to send you a gift along with the feedback whether you've corrected or not. Because I'm telling you guys, if you're not able to get a correction from your mentor or accountability, whomever you have, this is what is correctly understood by me as a law of similarity or proximity and all this gestalt law, you will not be able to go forward in this many times. It's a confusing topic seem easy. Okay, so that's the thing. Visual similarity Second functional consistency. See guys, this is most most important. Keeping only visual things the same is not law of similarity. Making the functionality also look similarity, making sure the functionality behaves consistently across all the website, tablet, mobile app. Right? If a hamburger icon looks very different in your Facebook app or something, it should behave same like in your mobile app. Should behave like in your tablet. That is how the functionality consistency is meaning. Third, consistency is taking into two aspects. Internal consistency as well as external internal. As I told you, the Microsoft products example, you can take Google Doc, you can take Google Sheet, you can take Google Slides. It's all the toolbar options are very same but external consistency. Let's say if you go for Nike shop, the Nike logo is same across the different different shops. Their shop, their letterheads, their shopping bag, their packaging, their brand store. They are their pamphlets, their flyers, their T shirt, their merchandise, their keychain. Everything is very similar. So consistency needs to go like that guys. See guys, in a study published by Journal of usability studies, 68% of the new users reported that they learned to use an app faster when similar design patterns are repeated and it is very consistent across different devices. So what does it mean? People are really looking for that intuitively and subconsciously. You as a designer has to go and ensure it. Okay, 78% of users are more likely to continue using an app or website if it maintains a consistent design. According to. According to a research by HubSpot. This is a very interesting statistics guys, because user retention is very important for your brand. Understand that. Now I'm going to give you a lot of examples guys. Okay, but you will have to go and analyze it then and only you will get this clarity. Okay? Take Google workspace, the Google Doc sheets, slides, etc. Second, go and take Apple ecosystem. If you take any Gesher, any interface in iPhone, iPad, Mac, it's all same. Take Google's, take Facebook's iconography and color scheme. You will see the ad page, you will see the Facebook page, you will see the Facebook group, you see the Facebook feed. Everything will look very consistent. Love similarity, the icon style, the blue and white color icons and the consistent iconography recognition. Everything is same. Spotify playlist. Have you seen Spotify has so much of creators but they have integrated and put it as a same album cover. Size, shape and texture. The color may be different, the COVID page may be different, but look at how it's all synchronized inside the Spotify playlist. So it is very, very difficult guys for a designer to get that kind of a consistent layout which can be across devices. It's been organized same, it's intuitive, right? Microsoft Office tools. I told you Airbnb interface, you can take Ikea products. If you are a physical designer, you can take Dyson products, you can take Tesla products, you can take Lego toys. These are all like having similar user interface guys. Particularly when you take Ikea product, the visual diagrams and the minimal test is very common because it's a Scandinavian design. People recognize that using their trust. Second, the Dyson products you can take. The sleek aesthetic is common across all of their products. You can take this Tesla, Tesla, Model S, Model E, Model X, Model Y have a similar digital interface. When you take Leo toys, the uniformity, the packaging is very similar. They have a consistent instruction for all the Lego sets because it's toys, right? And when you take a brands like let's say McDonald, Nike, Amazon, Coca Cola, all this logo are having a similar consistent pattern that can be recognized by anybody, anywhere, put anywhere in that particular thing. Like let's say even if they put it in the letterhead, even if they put it in the package, even if they put it in the name board. It's very, very vital to understand guys. Google material design, you Uber, Zapp, Slack interface, Netflix interface, Dropbox, LinkedIn. See guys, I can able to keep on telling you a lot of examples, but you pick any one or two example and try to analyze and understand it and then mark what you feel is law of similarity and then email it to me. Because if you're not able to implement these things, whatever I told you, it is equivalent to not listening to this podcast at all. Okay? So take action because nothing is going to change until you take action. Watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts, taking mentorship after mentorship, nothing is going to change you until unless you take mistake until and you take action, make mistake, reflect on the learning and then recorrect it. You are not going to learn design with this. I'm going to sign off. If you find this podcast useful, please share it with your friends and give me best star rating in Apple and Spotify. I can see a lot of people are listening to this, but they are not rating us. We are. Helps us to build our visibility guys. Of course. So help us to give the best star rating and also stay tuned to get further notification or episodes. Okay, take care. All the best. Bye bye.