Inconsistency as a crime?

Ornament is crime, so is inconsistency in UX design. I don’t know since when I became consistency policeman. Every time when I critique the design, the first thought coming to my mind is ‘is it consistent with previous design and other products’?

But it comes with a price. I kept deleting ideas because they are neither consistent with our common pattern or aligning with other products. I always thought this is the right thing. It’s a good thing to do in such a large company; we have seventy products and hundreds of designers. I’m willing to make things look-alike for the customers.

I proposed new patterns fit for complex use cases. When I asked for feedback from other designers, they suggested existing subscription creation patterns. Yeah, why can’t I just use something people get familiar with? How much cost is it to build this new pattern? I stayed with the existing pattern.

Six months later, we have more similar projects and we figure that the existing pattern may not be the best solution to complex use cases and longer workflow. We brainstormed and it turned out the pattern I gave up on could be a good choice.

I was so regretful at the moment. Why did I give up?

If consistency is the priority, then I’d stick to what we have. But if everyone values consistency more, then when will innovation happen? The design always stays the same; no one dares to give it a try on something unconventional.

Consistency may still be my priority like reflex but I will think about it again. I want to take the courage to say ‘yes we should be consistent but this is so much better and we shall give it try’. Who knows others would follow this to keep consistency, too?