ABSTRACT
Products should conform to applicable design conventions, be internally consistent, and assume logical, intuitive forms. “Congruent” means in agreement or harmony. The elements of a product reflecting congruent design should work together to communicate the intended message. Geometric congruence calls for similar items to have the same form and, purists might insist, the same size. Designers might try to make up for this incongruence with a warning label stating “Not a step.” However, other ladder designs attempt to solve this incongruence with design features. The Mr. YukTM symbol is a good example of congruent design. Children seeing the symbol on bottles should intuitively understand that the contents are bad for them because the cartoonish character looks sickened. Control-to-display relationships can reflect physical congruence.
