Users spend most of their time on other products, so they expect yours to work the way those do.
Nielsen's 2000 rule, and the reason interface novelty is usually a cost. It is the interface case of the principle of least astonishment, and it argues against distinctiveness for its own sake.
In practice
- A banking app that puts the balance where every other banking app puts it is used correctly; the one that innovates is not.
- A checkout that asks for the card number before the address is abandoned more often, because every other checkout asks in the other order.
- Standing
- The interface case of the principle of least astonishment.
- Subject
- Design & Systems
- Essay
- Rules of thumb for building things that work