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Why you should avoid UX copycat
The negative impacts of copying main players’ ideas and how to always challenge yourself
A trend observed for a while in the field of UX is the copying of design solutions proposed by the major players. Today, unfortunately this approach is becoming more and more a standard practice in our field. The “do it like Instagram or WhatsApp” seems to be the automatic answer to any UX problem that needs solving.
![A cat with a sly look that just took a bad shot](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*kDSwyzU9ogfgLgwT18usGA.png)
Of course the companies behind these amazing products are big, have dozens of “more-brilliant-than-me” designers, use AI tools to validate their assumptions and alternatives, create their own design systems and are able to perform massive testing sessions to validate their hypotheses. And yes, learning from masters, by copying, is an essential part of artistic training. But let me explain why copying design solution without thinking is the worst path to create a valuable product, and how it can totally sterilize your creativity and miss the point.
Why is copying worse than cheating?
Missing the WHY. Copying an existing design will totally sidestep the intellectual process that allows you to move from the problem to the solution. You will lose the purpose of UX. By focusing only on the WHAT, you will remain ignorant of the real user…