Generously use clichés. Maybe overuse them. Make a button look like a button, work like a button and place it right where people expect them to be. It is not just about design patterns and elements. Go ahead and steal the mental model of the people using the product. Mimic their language and behaviours in the product. This makes the interaction flow familiar and predictable. 

But, this doesn’t mean stringing together known elements. Solve a real problem that a user is facing. And execute it in a way that feels effortless and intuitive. 

Real design is what happens after and before we get all the elements together.