Using Design Patterns

Alice Toth, Wednesday, January 24, 2007 @ 10:21 pm

Design is a creative process, not a recipe. Good design is an iterative process where refinement is incorporated into each successive rendering. So how in the world does a pattern fit into a creatively, iterative process?

First off, let’s discuss what design patterns are. In essence, design patterns are a record of best practices derived to solve a particular problem. They are an abstract capture of a common structure, without dictating the concrete details. They give you a basis for where to start in order to come up with a solution. It is up to the designer to adapt the pattern to their particular context in order to solve the recurrent problem described by the pattern.

Actually, if you’ve been designing for a while you’ve probably already incorporated design patterns into your toolkit. Let’s say, for example, you’re designing a screen that requires a large amount of data to be presented in a very tiny space. Staring off into space, you remember a previous project and how you solved a similar problem. You adapt that solution to fit the context of the current application and viola! You’ve just used a design pattern.

Or you’re in a design meeting debating the merits of using breadcrumbs vs. a sequence map. Well, you’re actually debating two navigational design patterns – in this case, best practices that help with context. The chosen pattern solves the problem of giving users a sense of where they’re at in the application. How you implement the visual presentation of the pattern is up to you.

The recent books and articles on design patterns are, in effect, a formal codification of best practices that can aid in designing an elegant solution and also provide a common language for team discussions (sequence map is understood; 1-2-3 thingy at the top might not be). The more experience you have, the less likely you may be to consult design patterns. However, if you’re new to the field, encountering a problem for the first time, or wish to establish a common language for the team, they’re a good place to start.

And to help you get started, here’s a list of pattern repositories you might find interesting.

user experience design

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