Why reinvent the wheel? Why spend time and money on new experience when it is possible to reuse proven existing ones? Is the experience so important that it must be unique to the product, or, will customers be satisfied with an experience that is good, familiar, and functional, but not very original?

These are very valid questions, and in fact, most product Experience Design follows in the footsteps of some previous approaches. Relatively few companies can afford or are even interested in revolutionizing their product experience because the effort is expensive and time-consuming.

We are all familiar with the cookie cutter, of course. Cookies are associated with pleasure--a fun snack or dessert, and when shaped as animals or geometric forms, they are more pleasing to look at than irregular mound of baked dough. For cookies, having a shape is more satisfying than not having one, and the fact that the cookies are uniform does not minimize the warm and appetizing experience they generate.

The preceding image illustrates examples from architecture and software design that provides another angle to consider the benefits and potential limitations of the cookie-cutter Experience Design--the suburban development (A) and user interfaces based on popular design ecosystems, such as Google's Material design or Microsoft's Metro design (B):

• Pros: This has significantly reduced costs of construction and ongoing maintenance to those who use existing patterns that deliver proven and tested experience. Faster development and builds and some degree of flexibility in the configuration of various patterns allows for sufficient customization and personalization within the design framework. This works well for customers who value the familiarity, reliability and predictability of such patterns.
• Cons: It spreads a homogeneous look and feel that make it difficult for the individual person or company to stand out in the crowd. there is less flexibility in the ability to create new design systems that address specific needs that are not provided by the framework.