Fixation is the human tendency to approach a given problem in a set way that limits one’s ability to shift to a new approach. As such, fixation impairs designers' ideation and results in impasses. It can also cause the Einstellung effect, overlooking better ways of solving problems.
“Fixation is the way to death. Fluidity is the way to life.”
— Miyamoto Musashi, Strategist, philosopher, writer and founder of a swordsmanship style
See how fixation happens, what it causes, and how to handle it, in this video with Alan Dix: Author of the bestselling book “Human-Computer Interaction” and Director of the Computational Foundry at Swansea University.
Humans are hard-wired to jump to conclusions, often without realizing we do so. For example, the principle of Occam’s Razor describes how the simplest explanation is usually the correct one – and captures our distrust of convoluted answers. Having such straightforward ways of seeing things is comforting in an ever-changing world. It helps people make sense of new situations far more easily than treating each as an entirely new phenomenon and adopting a beginner’s mind to decode it.
However, design is the wrong setting for this tendency, and fixation is one aspect—or symptom—of insight problems. Fixation is also possibly the most obstructive force in a design process, and “traditional” or “standard” approaches to certain situations can lock designers into a “box” where there’s no clear view of what a new problem truly involves. The first goal is to understand the users’ situation thoroughly; the second is to define/frame the problem accurately – which often means using disruptive tactics such as outside-the-box thinking. Since design problems tend to be complex and successful designs are both useful and novel, it’s vital to be able to stretch beyond existing ways of seeing users, their contexts and their problems. So, innovative designs are not ones you can pull from “the shelf” (i.e., your existing understanding). It usually takes shattering that old frame of reference to get a real grasp of what’s involved.
For example, consider the problem of drawing four straight lines through a nine-dot square without leaving the page.
The two attempts above show how people might approach this problem, which literally demands going outside the box (below).
Some great ways to avoid/minimize fixation are:
Trust in the Freedom of Scope which a Problem Permits – As opposed to trusting your (or a team-mate’s) initial interpretation of that problem. Bias can creep in all too easily and trap your perspective. The Einstellung effect can also kick in if someone suggests the problem involves factors that aren’t present. Also, how the problem is explained can create fixation, and if a problem statement has the wrong wording or view of your users, the anchoring effect can push your team down the wrong avenues looking for a solution.
Use Out-of-the-Box Thinking – When your problem isn’t “cooperating” with you, push beyond the edges of the design space. Use methods such as brainstorming to work towards a spark of a bright idea.
Stop thinking of Items as having Limited, Dictionary-definition Uses – Look beyond the predefined qualities or affordances of anything you might leverage to tackle a problem. Complex problems demand resourcefulness in defining what objects/features get used for.
Believe in the Power of Incubation – To overcome an impasse, stop spinning your wheels. Just follow the stages of creativity and leave the problem so you can return with a fresh view. When you come back, that “Aha!” moment of lightning-bolt-inspired insight may have already struck. Leave it to your subconscious – it’s one of the hardest-working allies you may never get to know.
Beware of Topic Fixation in Ideation Sessions – Your design team may start becoming less receptive to other lines of thinking if several dominant ideas surface, especially early on. This can be hard to spot and manage, and more extroverted or outspoken teammates may guide discussion threads down these narrow alleyways. The risk is that everyone will tacitly accept these as the likeliest pathways to the best solutions rather than limiting factors of fixation, and shut off from considering other, better ways forward.
Remember, Old Solutions were once Novel Ones which Innovators found for Their Own, Unique Problems – It’s natural for our minds to try for comparisons as convenient yardsticks to measure with. A popular strategy in documentaries, etc., is to use analogies to make old concepts more relevant to modern audiences. However, a risk of bridging to earlier ideas is overlooking some insights and contemporary factors, e.g., the Inca Trail as “the Internet of the time” (early 1500s). So, while analogies to other situations/problems might be helpful, understand the limitations of old solutions vis-à-vis your problem’s uniqueness. A good remedy is pushing the boundaries in a new direction using divergent thinking methods such as random metaphors.
Overall, remember that fixation is about framing. Only you can control how you approach finding, defining and starting to search for solutions to your users’ exact problems.
© Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 3.0
Take our Creativity course, addressing fixation.
Fast Company incisively addresses fixation and offers many helpful tips.
This workshop account explores design fixation extensively.
Fixation is a problem in UX design because it traps designers in familiar patterns or early ideas, even when better solutions exist. When teams fixate, be it on a feature, layout, or assumption, they limit creativity and overlook user needs. This tunnel vision often leads to products that feel repetitive, confusing, or misaligned with real-world behavior—and users don’t find the design solution relevant.
Psychologists link fixation to cognitive bias: once people invest in an idea, they resist change. In UX, this blocks innovation and weakens user empathy. For example, copying a trendy interface might ignore the unique needs of your audience.
Explore another dimension of how “trapped thinking” can manifest in design: the Einstellung effect.
Fixation affects the design process by narrowing focus too early and limiting creative exploration. When designers latch onto a first idea or mimic popular trends, they stop questioning whether that solution truly fits their users’ problem/s. This short-circuits the iterative process and leads to designs that miss user needs or lack innovation.
Fixation also creates blind spots. Designers may overlook usability issues or fail to see simpler, more effective alternatives. For example, sticking with a complex navigation pattern because “everyone uses it” can confuse users rather than help them.
Explore why assumptions can become shaky ground for designers to tread upon when they set out to serve their users’ needs, and how to handle them.
Fixation often stems from rushing to solutions, relying on past experiences, or copying familiar patterns. When designers are under pressure—which can happen—they may cling to the first idea that seems to work. This creates a false sense of progress, even if the idea doesn’t solve the real problem. “Seems good enough” therefore isn’t helpful; it might even be worse than useless if it makes it into the market and users lambast it in reviews.
Cognitive biases—like the “curse of knowledge”—also fuel fixation. Once a designer knows something, it’s hard to imagine or remember what it’s like not to know it. This makes it easy to overlook how confusing or inaccessible a design might feel to users.
Team dynamics, client demands, or trend-chasing can also trap teams in rigid thinking. Breaking this cycle requires time, reflection, and diverse feedback.
Discover how knowing too much can work against one, amid other issues that can arise for designers and teams, and what to do about it, in our article Deformation Professionnelle and the Dunning-Kruger Effect – When Expertise Isn’t So Great.
Common examples of fixation in UX include overusing popular design trends, clinging to initial wireframes, and assuming users behave like designers. One classic case is the hamburger menu; many teams default to it as a way to include a hidden menu without testing if users actually find it intuitive. Another is mimicking big-brand UI patterns—like Apple’s minimalist style—without considering whether they suit the product’s target audience or goals, such as a specialist Customer Relationship Management system that needs to provide a wide range of features and functions for trained industry professionals to do their jobs well.
Fixation also shows up when teams keep iterating on one idea instead of exploring alternatives. For example, refining a complex checkout flow over and over instead of questioning if it needs simplification. It could be that a designer team is stuck on a local maximum and can’t recognize the reality that they’re refining a flawed system that urgently needs a major overhaul. These patterns block innovation and lead to user frustration. The best UX avoids fixation by questioning assumptions and testing ideas with real users.
Explore how to recognize local maxima and how to break free from the trap of thinking a “hilltop” is the “mountain summit” you really want to reach in design.
You might be stuck in fixation during UX work if you keep refining one idea without exploring others, or if you defend a design choice without clear evidence. Signs include ignoring user feedback that contradicts your assumptions (confirmation bias), resisting change, or feeling overly attached to early sketches or popular patterns.
Another clue is if your team keeps tweaking visuals or microinteractions but hasn’t rethought the core flow or content. Fixation also shows up when solutions feel familiar—but still not quite right somehow—and no one’s asking, “What if we tried something different?”
To spot it early, ask: “Have we explored enough options?” and “Are we solving the real problem?” Staying curious helps you break free. Also, have insight into the point that your team may be under pressure from business stakeholders. However, that shouldn’t mean you jump on the wrong “train” and end up nowhere, when you might be able to “fly” to a far better destination with some careful consideration and the courage to rethink things if needed.
Find out how confirmation bias can derail even competent design teams if they don’t catch it as a potential problem to watch out for with how they process user feedback.
Teams can avoid fixation in UX design by exploring multiple ideas before settling on a solution. Begin with divergent thinking—try to feel out the edges of a problem and get beyond it. Brainstorm and use out-of-the-box thinking to stretch to many concepts, not just one. Encourage critique sessions where team members challenge each other’s assumptions. From these ideas where you empathize with users and define the real problems, make prototypes early to test (with users) if ideas truly solve their problems—not just look good.
Rotating team roles, inviting outside perspectives, and using design sprints can also break rigid thinking. Perhaps most important of all is the spirit of freedom in creativity; create a safe space where people feel comfortable discarding work that doesn’t hold up.
Fixation thrives on ego and urgency. Teams who stay curious, flexible, and user-focused build better products—and avoid getting stuck in “good enough” that may end up “nowhere” in the long run.
Find out how to stretch beyond idea constraints by thinking out of the box, as Alan Dix: Author of the bestselling book “Human-Computer Interaction” and Director of the Computational Foundry at Swansea University discusses.
Yes, prototyping and sketching can help reduce fixation by making ideas visible and testable early in the process. Sketching is particularly important during ideation, to get ideas on paper, which can lessen fixation. When teams prototype multiple solutions—especially low-fidelity ones—they avoid locking into one concept too soon. It becomes easier to compare options, spot weaknesses, and let go of flawed ideas before they “solidify” into forms that cost time and effort to create.
Prototypes also invite user feedback, which grounds design decisions in real needs rather than assumptions. Even rough sketches or clickable wireframes can reveal what works—and what does not. Users can critique proposed ideas more honestly when they are in the form of paper prototypes or other forms suitable for early-design testing. They will not be as likely to worry about offending a designer as they would if they had a more sophisticated or finished-looking design in front of them. This rapid experimentation helps shift focus from “perfecting” a single idea to exploring the best possible one.
Prototyping keeps the process fluid, flexible, and user-driven—everything fixation resists.
Peer at the proven power of prototyping, in this video with Alan Dix:
Yes, it can if teams misinterpret results or cling too tightly to initial feedback. When designers test one idea early on, they might treat that feedback as final, rather than part of a larger learning process. This can lock teams into refining a flawed concept instead of exploring alternatives.
Fixation also happens when teams focus only on what users liked, not what could work better. For example, if users understand a basic prototype, designers might skip deeper questioning and miss greater opportunities for improvement.
It’s important to note that early-design testing is an essential activity for any design team. The trick is to prototype early, test multiple versions (especially through A/B or multivariate testing), and treat feedback as a guide—not a verdict.
Find out how to use A/B testing to identify more successful design ideas that can lead to be better solutions.
Collaboration breaks fixation in UX design by bringing in fresh perspectives and challenging assumptions. When diverse team members—designers, developers, researchers, and business stakeholders—work together, they can introduce new ideas that disrupt narrow thinking. This shared creativity helps teams move beyond early concepts and explore a wider range of solutions.
Critique sessions and cross-functional workshops encourage open dialogue and honest feedback. For example, a developer might spot a usability issue the designer overlooked, or a researcher might suggest a different angle based on user behavior. Effective collaboration turns design into a team effort, not a personal mission, and makes it easier to let go of fixed ideas and build smarter, more inclusive solutions.
Find out more about cross-functional collaboration and what it can do for design in this video with Laura Klein: Product Management Expert, Principal at Users Know, Author of Build Better Products and UX for Lean Startups.
Yes, design constraints can guide creativity instead of limiting it. When teams work within clear boundaries—such as budget, accessibility, time, or user needs—they’re less likely to chase flashy ideas that miss the mark. Constraints force designers to focus on what truly matters. For example, designing a mobile app for users with limited internet access pushes teams to prioritize performance and clarity. This challenge can spark more thoughtful, user-centered solutions.
Well-defined constraints also keep teams from endlessly polishing one idea. Instead, they encourage faster iteration, better prioritization, and more innovative problem-solving, making fixation less likely to take hold.
Idea constraints can help with fixation, too. By intentionally limiting the scope of ideas—like designing with only two colors, creating for non-screen interfaces, or solving a problem without adding new features—teams force themselves to think differently. These “what if” constraints disrupt habitual thinking and open new creative pathways.
Instead of refining the same safe idea, designers explore unexpected directions. For example, forcing a team to sketch three completely different solutions before choosing one helps break early attachment and encourages more original thinking. Idea constraints act like mental stretch exercises. They challenge teams to reframe problems and break free from patterns that lead to fixation.
Find a fascinating way to use constraints to a creative advantage and more in this video about the More Specific, More General approach with Alan Dix.
Fletcher, W. R. (2017). The antidote to design fixation. William Reed Fletcher. https://www.williamreedfletcher.com/ux-writing/2018/2/22/tips-on-creating-an-open-culture-on-your-design-team-et5gz-9ttfk
In this article, William Reed Fletcher explains "design fixation"—a cognitive bias causing designers to cling to initial ideas. Originally written for Wake, Fletcher provides psychologically grounded insights and practical strategies like "Bad Brainstorming," informal peer reviews, and low-fidelity prototyping to combat fixation. Drawing from academic research, particularly from Dr. Nathan Crilly of Cambridge, the article underscores the risks of premature idea attachment. It stresses how fixation stifles creativity and encourages a culture that values exploration and constructive critique. This resource is crucial for UX teams striving to enhance ideation and design quality through intentional, bias-aware processes.
Alechnavicius, V. (2022, July 28). 7 principles to beat fixation and become a more creative UX designer. VAEXPERIENCE. https://blog.vaexperience.com/7-principles-to-become-a-more-creative-ux-designer-or-anyone-else/
In this article, Vy Alechnavicius explores the concept of fixation in UX design and its impact on creativity. He discusses how fixation can limit designers' problem-solving abilities and offers seven principles to overcome this challenge. These principles include techniques like "bad brainstorming," seeking peer feedback, and embracing low-fidelity prototyping. Alechnavicius emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing fixation to enhance innovation and effectiveness in UX design. The article combines psychological insights with practical strategies, making it a valuable resource for designers aiming to foster creativity and avoid common cognitive pitfalls in their work.
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