{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/generate-once-before-opening-the-visual-examples",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1264",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Generate once before opening the visual examples",
  "summary": "The first example you see can quietly become the shape of the answer.",
  "kind": "protocol",
  "body": "Do one short independent generation pass before browsing screenshots, competitor pages or reference designs. Research on creative fixation shows that visual examples can reduce originality and can pull later solutions toward their features. The first pass does not need to be good; its job is to establish your own problem representation and several starting directions before the reference set narrows the search.",
  "limits": [
    "Examples can also provide useful knowledge, constraints and standards. The evidence does not support avoiding references entirely; it supports controlling when and how they enter the generation process."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-creative-defixation-and-structural-analogy"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-E2949BDB296A73A6",
    "RS-E48C841AA4B2F8E8"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "A 2020 study found that visual example exposure reduced originality on a creative idea-generation task; explicit instructions to avoid the example helped mitigate this fixation, while verbal examples with avoid instructions increased originality in one experiment.",
      "source_id": "RS-E2949BDB296A73A6",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "Effects depended on example modality and instruction; the study does not justify removing all examples from creative work.",
      "locator": "Abstract"
    },
    {
      "claim": "Earlier laboratory design experiments found that nonexperts tended to reproduce inappropriate elements from pictorial examples, and explicit defixating instructions reduced the effect.",
      "source_id": "RS-E48C841AA4B2F8E8",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The tasks were controlled design problems with nonexperts and do not estimate fixation magnitude for professional design systems.",
      "locator": "Abstract"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "You need references or competitor examples, but the task still requires genuinely different concepts rather than faithful imitation."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Examples can also provide useful knowledge, constraints and standards. The evidence does not support avoiding references entirely; it supports controlling when and how they enter the generation process."
  ],
  "example": "Before opening five competing landing pages, sketch three different ways to communicate the product's value. Then use competitors as evidence about conventions and gaps rather than as templates.",
  "check": "At least one candidate direction existed before example exposure, and you can tell which later features came from the references.",
  "steps": [
    "Write the problem and hard constraints without opening the examples.",
    "Generate several meaningfully different mechanisms or layouts from memory.",
    "Only then inspect references for missing constraints, useful mechanisms and quality standards.",
    "Compare new ideas with the pre-reference list and note where the references pulled you toward copying."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-E2949BDB296A73A6",
      "title": "Need something different? Here's what's been done: Effects of examples and task instructions on creative idea generation",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31907862/"
    },
    {
      "id": "RS-E48C841AA4B2F8E8",
      "title": "Following the wrong footsteps: fixation effects of pictorial examples in a design problem-solving task",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16248755/"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1264",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0745",
      "type": "use_before",
      "url": "/knowledge/separate-generation-clarification-and-ranking"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-8AE73B7C9DFB8BCA",
      "title": "Use examples without letting them become the answer",
      "url": "/collections/use-examples-without-letting-them-become-the-answer"
    }
  ]
}