Mental Model 

People perceive the world through their senses. This constant stream of information is then processed by the brain to form a 'mental model'.

Advantages to conforming to standardised Design	Advantages to not conforming to standardised Design
Users will be use to the design and will have a better understanding of how to use the product.	May make the product unique and stand out from other products.
Quick and easy to use the application as users will know where tools are and how to use them.	May be required for more advanced programmes, conforming may not be suitable for a more advanced programme.
Skills are transferable between applications
The time to learn how to use the product will be less as the user will not need to learn as many new things.
Less training/learning need to be used, increasing productivity of business/users

Disadvantages to conforming to standardised Design	Disadvantages to not conforming to standardised Design
May not be suitable for specific, more advanced applications. May need a new unique design to suit and work with the application/product.	Users will not know how to use the system and may get confused.
	A manual or instructions may need to be produced as this design would be new to the user.
	Users are more likely to make mistakes.

If Microsoft asked you to design a new user interface for a new emailing system,how would you make it look, and what would you do to it, would you build aconforming design or non conforming design?

The design for my new mailing system would conform to standardised design. This is because it should be a fairly simple and easy to use application to suit the purpose of emailing, it's not necessary for the design to be unique and stand out. By conforming it will make the system easier for users to use, less time will need to be spent on learning and the user will be able to transfer skills they have learnt by using other applications. 

The system will conform to the standardised design by having the exit button in the top right and it will use clearly labelled buttons that make it obvious when highlighted or selected by the use of colour. The system will also have a clearly labelled menu header, conforming to standardised design.