You won't out-design Microsoft

My Audi A5 had the best cruise control I've ever used. One dedicated lever with a button on the side. You could push it up, down, towards you, away from you. It covered an insane number of use cases that most drivers wouldn't even think of.

My favorite: cruise control is on, there's a slow car ahead, and I don't want to press the gas pedal. I just hold the lever towards me and the car accelerates. One lever. That's it.

Then Volvo decided to reinvent it. Touch controls on the steering wheel. One flat panel. The experience is terrible. They didn't copy what worked because they thought they could do better. They made it four times worse.

I see this every day in software too. I say, "I'd love our UI to work like this." And someone replies, "But I don't want to copy how Microsoft does it."

Really? 20 designers worked on that. They tested it. They shipped it. You think you, by yourself, one person team, can out-design Microsoft?

This is the biggest product killer I see. People are too proud to copy what works because it feels like stealing. You won't design it better. And the few who could are way too expensive for your project.

Use what works. If you like something, figure out how to extract the good juice out of it. Otherwise you'll be average at best.