Summary: If a website or company is big and famous, should you copy their design for your own site? Likely not, because good UX depends on context, and your situation could be quite different than a world-famous company's circumstances.
Although successful websites typically have high usability, average sites can hurt their business by copying design elements that don't work well in other contexts.
Video Author
Kathryn Whitenton is Nielsen Norman Group's Director of Digital Strategy. She works with clients to evaluate the user experience and information architecture of websites in a variety of industries including technology, telecommunications, and media, as well as corporate intranets. She has conducted usability research, eyetracking user research, and studies of users on mobile devices in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Her user studies have included general audiences as well as specific consumer types, business segments, children, and seniors.
