Borrow the Form
Users' habits were trained by other products. Designing along them takes far less effort — and works far better — than inventing a new set.
What you will run into
- 自己觉得挺巧妙的交互，别人第一次用完全找不到北
- 为了「有特色」，把常见的东西换了个说法，结果没人看懂
- 从零想信息架构，想了三天还在改
Innovation in the wrong place has a cost. Users spend only a few minutes in your product and won't pay extra to learn a new set of rules. Differentiation should live in how you solve the problem, not in what the buttons are called or how the list is ordered.
What to Borrow, What Not to
| 该借 | 别借 | |
|---|---|---|
| 结构 | 列表加详情、左导航右内容、收件箱式的待处理 | 对方为自己业务定制的特殊层级 |
| 交互 | 下拉刷新、左滑归档、拖拽排序这类通用手势 | 只有重度用户才知道的隐藏操作 |
| 命名 | 用户已经熟的词：归档、草稿、收藏 | 对方自造的品牌化名词 |
| 功能 | 别借。功能要从你自己的场景推出来 | 照着对手的功能列表补齐，是抄不是借 |
Where to Borrow From
- First borrow from what your users use every day. The apps they open most on their phone are their default mental model.
- Then borrow from a mature product with the same structure, not necessarily the same industry. If what you're building is "work through a batch of pending items one by one," then an email client's structure works, regardless of industry.
- Borrow the native conventions of the operating system. Back, share, long-press menu—following the system is never wrong.
- After borrowing, be clear about where you differ. For a product with the same structure but different content, users will ask "then why use you"—the answer has to be on core value.
Note for the AI
Giving the AI one concrete reference is far more effective than a pile of adjectives.
PROMPT · Borrow a structure
我要做：[你的产品一句话] 结构上参考 [某个成熟产品] 的 [某个具体部分]，因为 我的用户已经习惯那套操作。具体借这几样： - 信息层级：[比如 列表 → 详情 → 归档] - 主导航方式：[比如 左侧一级导航] - 通用交互：[比如 左滑归档、拖拽排序] - 命名习惯：[比如 用「归档」不用「完结」] 不要借的： - 它的功能列表。我的功能要从我自己的场景推出来。 - 它为自身业务定制的特殊层级。 请先画出信息架构和页面地图，说明哪一部分是借来的、 哪一部分是我这个场景特有的，再往下做。