Why ‘Best Practices’ Are Killing Innovation in UX

Best Practices Might Be Holding Us Back

If you’ve been in UX for more than five minutes, you’ve heard this phrase: “Follow best practices.”

Use familiar design patterns.

Stick to industry standards.

Make it intuitive.

Sounds good, right? Except here’s the problem: best practices can kill innovation.

At some point, every dashboard, e-commerce site, and SaaS platform started looking exactly the same. Have we stopped designing for real users and started designing for… convention?

Are we making great products? Or just making safe ones?

The Hidden Cost of Playing It Safe

Design Monotony: Ever notice how every SaaS dashboard has a left-hand nav, card layouts, and the same old charts? That’s not always because it works, it’s because no one is questioning it.

“Best practices” assume a universal solution: But what works for Amazon won’t necessarily work for a niche, B2B learning platform.

Critical thinking takes a backseat: Instead of researching what our specific users need, we rely on “what’s worked before” and stop looking deeper.

The truth? Best practices are a great starting point, but a terrible finish line.

When Best Practices Hurt More Than They Help

I’ve seen “industry standards” backfire more times than I can count.

A company redesigns its checkout flow based on e-commerce best practices, only to find that their unique audience prefers an older, “clunky” version that gave them more trust signals.

A dashboard follows the typical left-hand navigation structure, but user research reveals that users only interact with 10% of the menu.

A team insists on using a hamburger menu for mobile because it’s the norm, only to realize it hides the most important actions and kills engagement.

We assume best practices always improve usability. But in reality, they sometimes create friction, confusion, or unnecessary complexity.

So… How Do We Design Beyond Best Practices?

Start with patterns, but validate everything.
Use best practices as a starting point, not a blind rulebook.

Trust real users over universal standards.
Test, prototype, and iterate based on actual feedback, not just what “works for other companies.”

Be willing to break the mold.
If a common design choice isn’t working for your audience, it’s okay to challenge it.

Ask better questions.
Instead of asking “What’s the best practice for this feature?”, try:

What’s the real problem users are facing?

What’s the simplest way to solve it for our audience?

Are we designing for usability or for convention?

‍

The best UX doesn’t come from following rules, it comes from challenging them. Stop Designing on Autopilot.

‍

Break the Rules, But Do It With Purpose

Best practices exist for a reason, but they’re not a replacement for real UX thinking. Great designers know when to follow them, when to adapt them, and when to throw them out entirely.

So… what’s one best practice you’ve broken lately?