This thought came from a conversation I had during a 1:1 with Forbes' VP of Product Design.

At one point, he used the word “interpolation” to describe design patterns that carry across industries.

My first reaction was, “Wait...interpolation like music?!”

The parallel clicked instantly; I understood exactly what he meant.

What is Interpolation?

Interpolation, in its simplest form, is using a pre-existing concept as a reference to create something new. In music, if you’ve ever heard a song that feels oddly familiar, like it echoes another track and makes you react like the gif below, then congrats, you’ve experienced an interpolation.

The conversation led me to thinking about the interpolation of design; how existing solutions have, and will continue to be reimagined for new use cases, much like how music interpolations carry melodies across genres and eras.

Take Opposite of Adults by Chiddy Bang, for instance — it borrows the youthful nostalgia of MGMT’s Kids and turns it into something fresh and contextually new.

Some other of my favorite interpolations:

Original Song	Interpolated Song
Jai Paul's BTSTU (Demo)	Dreams Money Can Buy by Drake
Michael Jackson's P.Y.T	Good Life by Kanye West

Design works the same way: a navigation pattern from one industry, can be reimagined for another with renewed meaning & utility. The same intuition that helps a designer build clarity into a finance app can also guide the creation of a storytelling platform.

At its core, design intuition is the art of pattern recognition; seeing the logic behind what works, then reshaping that logic within a new context that just makes sense.