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Hey, it’s Kushagra. Welcome to this week’s AtlasMoth drop.

Last week, Felix Lee went viral on X.
For applauding a copied design.

The post? About Perplexity’s AI browser, Comet.

When Perplexity launched Comet in July, it instantly became the talk of the tech world from San Francisco to New Delhi.
The catch? It was invite-only.

And yet, everyone wanted in.

But the browser’s design looked 99% identical to Chrome.
The only difference: a subtle AI agent living quietly in the side nav.

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The Genius of Copying Chrome

At first glance, Comet’s design didn’t look original.
Especially compared to newer browsers like Arc and Dia that proudly reinvented the UX wheel.

But that’s exactly what made Comet work.

Arc and Dia chased novelty.
Comet chased familiarity.

A year ago, when Arc’s hype was flooding X.

Fast forward to 2025, Arc announced it was discontinuing development.

Jakob’s Law had quietly proven itself right.

Jakob’s Law of Design:
Users prefer digital products that work the same way as the ones they already know.

The Billion-Dollar Lesson

When Comet launched, it immediately felt like a winner, not because it reinvented browsing, but because it didn’t have to.

Anyone switching from Chrome to Comet barely noticed the change.

No onboarding flow.
No “watch this 5-minute tutorial.”
Just pure, frictionless browsing.

The AI sat quietly on the side, never shouting, never forcing itself into attention.

Comet wasn’t designed to look new.
It was designed to feel invisible.

Felix Lee summed it up best:

“This is a billion-dollar lesson in design.
Whoever led Comet’s UX has extraordinary product sense.
It’s not innovative because it’s new, it’s innovative because it’s effortless.”

Where Most Designers Go Wrong

Imagine this: It’s 2025, and someone’s designing a next-gen browser.
The mission? Make the web feel intelligent, not static.

Most designers would start with surface-level polish:

• “Redesign the tabs.”

• “Add a sidebar for AI.”

• “Throw in some fancy gradients.”

But all that’s just paint on a filing cabinet.

Perplexity took a smarter path.
They didn’t build a prettier browser; they built a thinking companion.

Arc redesigned the house.
Comet redefined browsing itself.

The Anti-Original Design Playbook

Here’s the exact framework behind Comet’s success, a masterclass in practical product sense:

1️⃣ Screenshot the sameness
Gather 10 screenshots from your category.
Circle every recurring element: tabs, menus, and modals.
Label them “industry costume.” Learn from what users already expect.

2️⃣ Run the 3 real tasks
Pick the top 3 user goals (buy, send, compare).
Time how long each takes in your product vs. others.
Where users slow down, that’s your design debt.

3️⃣ Replace “views” with “verbs”
Shift focus from looking to doing.
“Search” → “Find & Decide.”
“Results” → “Act & Finish.”

4️⃣ Design the mistake path first
List the 5 most common user failures: wrong click, auth error, and network failure.
Build recovery paths (undo, retry, inspect) before polishing visuals.

5️⃣ Kill “interesting”; keep “inevitable”
Ask: Would a tired user at 11:57 p.m. thank me for this?
If no, delete.
Maybe hide it behind “Advanced.”

6️⃣ Write the anti-original stance
Two bullets only:

• What the product does shockingly well.

• What users in the category are tired of.

7️⃣ Overbuild one “Done Flow”
Choose one hero workflow that the thing users do most.
Make it absurdly good: zero latency, inline edits, instant results.
Good enough isn’t enough here.

8️⃣ Name the creed, not the feature
Finish this line:

“People who use [product] are the kind who ________.”
That defines the product’s core identity.

9️⃣ Keep a weekly “Friction Kill” ritual
Every week: one metric, one user clip, one removal.
Ask: What did we delete that made finishing faster?

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Your Move

Perplexity’s Comet proves a simple truth:
Innovation isn’t about originality; it’s about inevitability.

Copy what works.
Refine where it matters.
And make the product so familiar that people don’t even realize they’ve switched.

That’s why Comet went from beta to the fastest-growing browser of 2025.

And the “originals”?
They’re the ones nobody uses anymore.

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Design takeaway

Originality isn’t invention. Its intention.
Great products don’t make users think.
They make them finish.