Regenerating output destroys the parts the user already approved.
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Direct Manipulation: A Step Beyond Programming Languages Accordion Editing and Apple Picking: Early UX Patterns of AI
Visual & Generative
EmergingRegion Lock
Selective Regeneration with Anchored Parts
Pin the parts you like, regenerate the rest. Locked regions stay frozen across iterations while the AI varies only what is free — no more starting over to keep one good thing.
Metaphor
Pinned Frame
Interaction
Lock, Regenerate, Compare
Use case
Image Editing, Layout Variants, Content Iteration
Failure mode
Hidden Structure
Control mechanisms
Lock Toggles · Region Selection · Partial Regen
Reference examples
Midjourney Vary Region · Photoshop Generative Fill · Ideogram Canvas Magic Fill
Interactive Example
The live side-by-side is the comparison.
This prototype already contains the contrast between chat and the pattern response. It stands as the primary comparison surface for this page.
Keep the one good thing. Vary the rest.
Chat regeneration is all-or-nothing. You like the headline but not the body, so you hit regenerate and lose the headline too, then spend the next three tries trying to recover the thing you already had. Every iteration gambles your best work to fix your worst.
Region Lock lets the user pin approved regions and free only the rest, so locks guarantee that content survives across every regeneration while the AI varies what is unlocked. Iteration stops being a reset and becomes controlled, convergent search — each pass strictly improves on the last instead of trading wins for losses.
Progress requires the freedom to change everything except the parts you have already decided are right.
DOPE Lens
How this pattern improves AI interaction quality.
Observability
Locked regions are visually marked across every iteration
Directability
Toggle locks at any granularity — region, paragraph, layer
Predictability
Locks guarantee the same content survives across regenerations
Explainability
Each lock carries a label naming what is preserved and why
Fit
Where it earns its place.
Use it
when
when
Iteration is composite — some parts settled, others still being explored — and full regenerations destroy progress.
Avoid
when
when
The composition is so coupled that varying one part requires varying others.
In the wild
Where this pattern already ships.
The pattern is shipping but still maturing across products. Entries below show how different teams have approached it; expect variation as the space settles.
Midjourney Vary Region
Midjourney
Editor with freehand/rectangular selection + prompt remix — locked regions stay frozen across iterations while the unlocked area regenerates.
Visit Midjourney ↗
Photoshop Generative Fill
Adobe
2026 release adds reference-photo-aware fills via Firefly 4, Gemini 3 Nano Banana Pro, and FLUX.2 Pro. Selection-then-fill remains the core gesture; the rest of the image stays untouched.
Visit Adobe ↗
Ideogram · Canvas Magic Fill
Ideogram
Mask a region on the canvas, adjust the generation window, prompt just that area — unaffected pixels stay locked while only the masked region regenerates.
Visit Ideogram ↗
Research Frame
Why this pattern exists, and where it breaks.
Let users lock specific regions so AI only varies the unlocked rest.
Chat regenerations are all-or-nothing — there is no surface for partial preservation.
Over-locking can trap users in local optima or hide better global alternatives.
Common questions
What people ask about this pattern.
When should I use the Region Lock pattern?
+
Iteration is composite — some parts settled, others still being explored — and full regenerations destroy progress.
When should I avoid the Region Lock pattern?
+
The composition is so coupled that varying one part requires varying others.
What problem does Region Lock solve?
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Regenerating output destroys the parts the user already approved.
Why is chat the wrong fit for this?
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Chat regenerations are all-or-nothing — there is no surface for partial preservation.
Grounded in Research
Not just opinion.
The papers, guidelines, and usability studies this pattern rests on.
Ben Shneiderman
IEEE Computer · Vol. 16, Iss. 8 · 1983
The original case for visible, continuous, reversible direct manipulation over command-line abstraction. The patterns that move from prose-prompt to controllable surface are this argument applied to LLM I/O.
Sarah Gibbons, Tarun Mugunthan, Jakob Nielsen
Nielsen Norman Group · 2023
Empirical usability study naming the exact chat failure modes — expanding/condensing whole answers when only a span needs work, manually harvesting fragments across regenerations — that selection-scoped transforms and single-axis depth controls exist to fix.
Related Patterns
Curated connections, not just neighbors.
Hand-picked relationships — what this pattern pairs with in practice, what it replaces, what it builds on, and what builds on it.
Often paired with
Parallel Alternatives
Lock the keepers; let three candidates diverge only where it is unlocked.
Often paired with
Visual Intent Expression
Visual Intent Expression sets the look with swatches and references; Region Lock keeps what matches it across iterations.
Alternative to
Seed Pinning
Seed Pinning freezes the randomness and varies one setting at a time; Region Lock freezes chosen parts, varies the rest.