I keep getting asked how a simple idea from user experience shows up in interaction design — in the interface itself. So let's take one design strategy and push it all the way through: repetition. Used well, it doesn't make a design boring. It makes the message easier to understand.

For the exercise, the problem statement is a customised onboarding on mobile for a new pickup truck from an electric car maker.

Repetition

Repetition is simply repeating one element many times. You expect a brand's logo in the same place on every page; you expect the menu where you left it. Being consistent makes people comfortable — the eye works a certain way by default, and repetition takes advantage of that.

It also reinforces a message. If you want people to remember you're the fastest, you say it more than once. We learned our times tables the same way.

Pattern

A pattern is repetition of more than one element, working in concert. Look at a bed cover or a notebook: circles, spirals and shapes appearing again and again, sometimes touching, sometimes with space between. We based most of our patterns on colour, texture and shape — shapes are recognised far faster than words, which we still have to read.

Rhythm

The intervals between repetitions create rhythm — and a sense of movement. Musicians use the silent gaps between notes the same way. There are five broad types: random, regular, alternating, flowing and progressive.

Here we used progressive rhythm: changing one characteristic of a motif as it repeats, screen after screen, so the journey builds.

Designing with all three

Together they set the mood of the interface. Repetition keeps attention on the content, even when the navigation is cognitively complex. Patterns add texture and keep similar navigation consistent. Rhythm builds excitement gradually — and reassurance at the end, when a self-customised truck sits on the success page right before the buy.

*Originally published on Medium.*

Read the full piece

This note is a summary. The full essay — with the research, the sketches and the reasoning — lives on Medium at medium.com/@amitchotia9.

Physics taught me you don't get to call it right until it's proven. Most of what I write is me trying to show the working.