Protocol
Mark the example features you must not inherit
If an example contains the wrong move, name the wrong move before it becomes a default.
When it fits
- An example must be shown early because it communicates constraints, failure modes or stakeholder expectations, but copying its structure would be harmful.
When to avoid it
- Defixating instructions reduced example fixation in laboratory studies but did not eliminate it in every condition. Strong product conventions can also be valuable; reject a feature only for a reason.
Why it matters
When example exposure is unavoidable, turn it into a defixation exercise. List the features that are informative and separately list features that must not be reproduced. Experimental design and idea-generation studies found that people copied problematic or visually salient example features, while explicit avoid instructions reduced fixation. Make the forbidden inheritance visible before generation starts.
Steps
- The final option preserves the useful function from the reference without reproducing at least one explicitly rejected example feature.
An example
A reference dashboard may prove that users need status, exceptions and drill-down. Mark its dense card grid and duplicated navigation as 'do not inherit' before designing alternatives.
Check your result
The final option preserves the useful function from the reference without reproducing at least one explicitly rejected example feature.
Keep this limit in mind
- Defixating instructions reduced example fixation in laboratory studies but did not eliminate it in every condition. Strong product conventions can also be valuable; reject a feature only for a reason.
Connected ideas
Useful withGenerate once before opening the visual examples
Evidence and sources
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.
Effects depended on example modality and instruction; the study does not justify removing all examples from creative work.
Earlier laboratory design experiments found that nonexperts tended to reproduce inappropriate elements from pictorial examples, and explicit defixating instructions reduced the effect.
The tasks were controlled design problems with nonexperts and do not estimate fixation magnitude for professional design systems.