Just because you have seen something, does not mean you know it
Just because you’ve seen a lot of porn doesn’t mean you know how to make love Me
Too many coders and product developers think they know something about Ux or graphic design just because they’ve seen a lot of it. This is naturally just plain false. All you’ve got is the same skills as a parrot who speaks. You can repeat what has been already told you. However you can not create something original.
Browsing the web looking for things to duplicate or mimic makes no sense unless you’re able to understand why they’ve done what they did. Then use that knowledge and apply it in a way which fits your current context, not just copy something you’ve seen a success somewhere else. To me I think that’s what designers do, but the parrots can only mimic behavior they’ve seen.
So be humble and don’t think for a second you know Ux just because you’ve create web pages or just seen many.