160 Types of Quality

John Spacey, updated on August 15, 2024

Quality is the value of things relative to their purpose. Any product, service, experience or asset can be described in terms of its quality or lack of quality. Quality includes both tangible aspects such as features and intangible aspects such as the taste of food. The following are common types of quality.

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Conformance Quality

Conformance quality is the degree to which a product, service, system or process accurately and precisely aligns to applicable requirements, specifications, standards, policies, processes, regulations and designs. This is mostly about whether a product or service is internally consistent with its specifications. This doesn't necessarily align to actual perceptions of quality in the market where a low quality product in the eyes of customers may very well conform to its specifications.

Adherence to Specifications	Audit Results
Calibration	Customer Feedback
Defect Detection	Design Conformity
Design Integrity	Error Rate
Maintenance Quality	Manufacturing Precision
Packaging Standards	Process Deviations
Product Failures	Product Returns
Regulatory Compliance	Requirements Conformity
Rework Rate	Safety Compliance
Scrap Rate	Service Errors
Standards Compliance	Supplier Quality
Training Conformance	Warranty Claims

Product Quality

Product quality can only be evaluated by the customer. That is to say that you can't very well claim that your product is high quality if your customers disagree. When evaluating product quality, customers are likely to consider how well a product suits their needs and aligns to their preferences. Likewise, customer perceptions such as what your customer knows about your brand is likely to greatly influence their feelings about quality. It is also common for individual customers to have strong feelings about what quality means one way or another. For example, one customer may see aesthetics as important while another customer may prioritize durability and reliability.

Accuracy	Aesthetics
Aligns to Customer Preferences	Brand Image
Brand Recognition	Build Quality
Compatibility	Consistency
Craftsmanship	Design Quality
Durability	Efficiency
Ergonomics	Features
Finish	Functionality
Materials Quality	Performance
Precision	Reliability
Safety & Security	Satisfies Customer Needs
Usability	Workmanship

Service Quality

Services involve intangible elements of quality such as environments, customer service and professionalism. This can involve much human interaction such that customer service is a talent that relies on rare character traits such as patience and interpersonal intuition. Services that truly pursue quality may provide high touch services whereby labor and attention is put into something that could be done an easier way.

Attention to Detail	Attentiveness
Competence	Consistency
Courtesy	Effectiveness
Efficiency	Expertise
Fairness	Flexibility
Follow-up	Friendliness
Helpfulness	High Touch
Honesty	Order Accuracy
Personalization	Precision
Professionalism	Responsiveness
Service Recovery	Service Speed
Support	Timeliness

Experience Quality

The quality of an experience. This is a broad term that is most often about the experience of using a product or service. Experiences can also include things such as entertainment, travel, learning, digital environments and games. For this reason, experience quality is situational and diverse. For example, a quality movie experience may be thrilling and loud while a quality bus ride may be reliable and quiet.

Ambiance	Amenities
Cleanliness	Comfort
Convenience	Ease of Use
Emotional Resonance	Empathy
Engagement	Entertaining Experiences
Hospitality	Intuitiveness
Learnability	Meaningful Experiences
On-time Performance	Overall Enjoyment
Personal Touches	Responsiveness
Simplicity	Smell
Social Status	Sound & Sensation
Tangibles	Taste

Digital Quality

The quality of digital applications and information technology services. This includes the operating characteristics of the technology such as cybersecurity that aren't necessarily visible to users. As such, this is an area where quality is more than simply customer perceptions. For example, a banking system may not be used by customers directly but indirectly impacts customer needs such as transactions that are processed securely, accurately, privately and quickly.

Accessibility	Availability
Capacity	Cybersecurity
Discoverability	Ease of Navigation
Efficiency	Error Handling
Error Prevention	Error Recovery
Interoperability	Latency
Load Time	Maintainability
Performance	Privacy
Reliability	Resilience
Response Time	Scalability
Throughput	User Control
User Support	Visual Clarity

Information Quality

The quality of information relative to its purpose. This includes how valuable and usable information is in a particular context. Information quality also relates to how much you trust the source, how accountable they are and processes for validating and cross checking the information. This also depends on data quality such as data provenance whereby you maintain records of where data came from and how it has been updated and maintained.

Accuracy	Background & Context
Clarity	Completeness
Consistency	Corrections
Credibility	Data Provenance
Depth	Explorability
Granularity	Objectivity
Originality	Peer Review
Precision	Readability
Relevance	Reliable Sources
Source Accountability	Timeliness
Usefulness	Validity
Value	Visual Quality

Quality of Life

The health, happiness, security, prosperity and fulfillment of individuals and communities. This is a subjective thing that is best evaluated by asking people how satisfied they are with life. It can also be approximated with measures of social conditions in areas such as income, health, crime and safety.