Repetition in Design Composition

Repetition refers to duplicating a single element many times. Railroad tracks, stairs, and bookshelves all represent the repetition of objects in real life. Repetition is best used in small doses within a composition to avoid creating a design that becomes monotonous. That said, it can help maintain consistency in your compositions.^[1]

Simple repetition is best kept to small doses (such as three repeating lines in a hamburger menu icon). When used too much, it can become boring and monotonous. It’s useful in reinforcing an idea or concept, however, it is vital to understand how to use it effectively.

To understand the idea of complex repetition, think of carpets or wallpapers. They create rhythms and patterns — repetition of more than one design element working together as a group.^[2] Complex repetition can be quite dynamic and refreshing, adding more visual interest than simple repetition. 

Designers can use complex repetition to make particular elements stand out within a group. They can also use complex repetition more subtly for things like patterns and textures within a composition.

Repetition — particularly simple repetition — is common for balanced, symmetrical, and static compositions. It’s also popular for smaller elements, such as a hamburger menu icon (made up of three parallel horizontal lines on top of each other). It’s clear-cut and recognizable to users, eliminating distractions from the content in focus. 

Simple repetition doesn’t necessarily require that all elements are identical. For example, icons of the same style, size, and color can create simple repetition even though the specific images are different for each. Each icon is a single element, but combined together and equally spaced they create a reliable, simple pattern in a navigation bar.

Pagination is ordinarily an example of simple repetition. Sometimes, though, there are too many pages to display all at once.

That's when complex repetition can give users a sense of continuity without overwhelming your users with too much information. By using complex repetition to create an internal rhythm, users can clearly orient themselves within the pagination while keeping the overall design clean.

Some interfaces just naturally lend themselves to repetition — calculators, calendars, tables, and the like. Repetition in these cases orients users and makes the interface intuitive to use. Colored boxes repeated at equal intervals give a sense of order and balance.

Simple repetition focuses on equal relationships between elements. Every element — for example, days in a calendar — has the same shape, color, and carries the same visual weight.

Simple repetition creates consistency and order and eliminates confusion in the design. It’s immediately apparent to users what the element is and its function.

Complex repetition involves variations of shape, color, or position of elements repeated in a recurring, regular arrangement. A composition that includes groups of boxes in different styles that follow equal intervals is an excellent example. Black blocks mark the category and create contrast, while other content is placed in white blocks, making the page more dynamic and easy to navigate.