The UI/UX Patterns You Literally Can’t Use

Exploring design patents from tech companies

This is the spiritual successor to a story that appeared in OneZero in April 2019: “From Like Buttons to Message Bubbles: The UX Designs You Can’t Use”

You love thinking big. You love looking at other tech companies to see how they designed their products, or their navigation system, or that one animation transition you love. You aspire to design something like that. You keep bookmarks in your head: If you needed an expanding carousel for your entertainment app, you could take inspiration from Netflix.

Or maybe not. There are in fact some patterns you can’t use.

“W-what do you mean I can’t use?” you ask. “Like it doesn’t fit my situation? What — because I’m not at a tech company?” No, I mean like, you literally cannot use them without getting sued. Just as inventions have their own patents and rights, so do designs, and tech companies are good at protecting their work. Almost all parts of the Netflix carousel — the hover, the expansion — are patented work.

Now you’re thinking with clenched fists like John Locke from Lost: “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” Welp.

If design patents sound familiar, you may have read my article last year, “From Like Buttons to Message Bubbles…