Quality is one of those words always mentioned as good design. It's one of the words that people have different mental associations with. One may think lickable UI buttons and another might talk about the overall end-to-end user experience. Quality is the degree to which an object or entity (e.g., process, product, or service) satisfies specific attributes or requirements. The quality of something can be determined by comparing a set of inherent characteristics with a set of requirements.

If you have not watched Rasmus Andersson's talk he gave on Quality in Software, take a moment to watch it. Andersson goes into great detail about performance and specific examples of quality in software. In this post, we're going to look at other industries of design and quality in how you interact with them. There are similar signals you can find in software to improve quality.

When I was a kid, I had no idea that Old Navy, The Gap, and Banana Republic were all owned by the same company. At first glance, I thought the clothing looked very similar, but when I wore the different brands, I noticed the smaller things. The lowest-tier brand is Old Navy. Despite having a visually similar look to the apparel, I noticed the threads in the shirt fell apart quickly or would have issues with the zipper. Let’s take a look at some of the key areas that give you a signal of good quality.

Zippers as input forms

Have you ever looked at the brand of zipper your apparel is made by? Whether you were aware or not, you likely owned a zipper made by YKK. For the longest time, I had no idea what it stood for. The acronym YKK stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, a Japanese business that distinguished itself as the most popular zipper brand in the world. Whether on a jacket or your jeans, the zipper is one of the most important functional pieces of clothing. The equivalent of this is input forms, one of the most common interface patterns in CRUD applications (Create, Read, Update, and Delete).

When you think of quality and aesthetics, both the zipper and input forms aren’t at the top of the list. However, they are the top elements of high quality. Have you ever had a zipper that gets stuck or the lining gets misaligned? When they fail, it can take the most beautiful designer jacket and make it feel completely worthless. Similarly, form inputs are used so much in software you don’t pay attention to it until it doesn’t work well. One of the most frustrating experiences is when you’re in the checkout flow and the forms are janky. Perhaps it’s poor keyboard inputs, slow loading, or the horrific disabled copy/paste—an interaction that doesn’t increase security by the way.

Wall trim and handles as view integrity

Apparel has tiers of quality, and hotels do too. In interior design, the wall trim is your signal of quality. When you stay at hotels, take a look at the wall trim and handles in your room. At first glance, the different tiers of hotels have a similar look to them. You’ll notice at high-end designer hotels likely have trim built with higher-quality materials with a sense of story and craftsmanship. At cheaper hotels, the trim might have a similar visual look but the paint is chipping away; not made with the same materials. This is the same with handles of doors, closets, and drawers.

The software equivalent of wall trim and handles are the broader interface patterns, such as sidebars, canvases, and resizing. Signals of high quality in this category are low latent feedback and snappy interactions—the buttery scrolling as famously said by Craig Federighi, SVP at Apple when talking about Safari’s scrolling.

Repetitive consistency in typography and color

Repetitive elements aren’t going to steal the show when it comes to interface quality. However, the first glimpse of inconsistency begins to erode trust. In the physical world, this might be a piece of wood in the fence that’s uneven or falling apart. For the digital world, this is a different font size not naturally belonging to the ecosystem or a random color that begins breaking consistency.

Quality can only be measured with a set standard

Companies talk about quality and how important it is in their culture. The number one problem I see is most don’t set the standard clearly to understand. The quality of manufacturing at Old Navy is different at Banana Republic. Set the standard of expectation so it’s clear to you and what you’re building.

Nurture the zippers, trim, and core elements that hold your interface together. Look for signals of quality in software you admire and study it. You’ll learn to identify specifics on what makes the interface quality great and apply it to your work.