The spatial model must hold across the product
Aliases: product-wide space · cross-module transition · a different set in Settings
What it is
If the main flow enters detail from the right, but the isomorphic detail in Settings pops from the bottom, people conclude Settings is a different product. The scope of a spatial model is the whole product, not the current feature module. Each module can be locally coherent and the map still fails at the boundary. The confusion is “am I still in this app,” not whether one path kept a consistent axis internally.
Why it happens
Mental models transfer across scenes. People carry “detail lives on the right,” learned in messages, into Settings, search and profile. Transfer is the default unless a strong static difference (a truly different information architecture) blocks it. If motion rewrites the kind-to-location map at a module boundary, imported expectations keep missing until the person builds a second map just for Settings. The cost of switching maps is the lostness between modules.
Team structure often cuts the seam: core navigation owns transitions, Settings uses the system’s default bottom sheet. Users have no “Settings team”; they have one app.
Where it stops holding
- Embedded system UI (share sheet, permission dialog) is not bound by the product map; forcing it will fight the OS. Mark the boundary with the product’s own transition on the way in and out.
- White-label modules and third-party mini programs can be “somewhere else,” but entry needs an explicit spatial handoff; the axis must not silently change.
- Unity does not mean every surface uses the same edge; it means a given kind keeps the same address across the product.
Applying it
- Make the kind-to-location table a cross-module constraint. Settings, search, profile and content detail share one table.
- Audit module-default transitions. Ban “this module only” direction exceptions unless the module is explicitly an outside world.
- Check: walk from the main flow into Settings into an isomorphic detail, and ask whether that last arrival came from the same side as entering detail outside. “No” means the model broke at the module boundary.
Related
- Same group: F7.07.1 Origin location implies belonging · F7.07.2 A consistent spatial model reduces navigation confusion
- Nearby: A7.13 Cross-product transfer of models · F7.05.2 Inconsistent direction breaks the spatial model
- Search terms:
product-wide spatial model·cross-module transition·mental model transfer