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Patterns help us solve design problems - problems that occur time and time again, and are being solved time and time again by designers. Patterns describe practical solutions to these problems and how to apply them in different situations.
A pattern language
Design patterns were originally developed by the architect Christopher Alexander and his collegues in the ground-breaking A pattern language (1977). Alexander's patterns about architecture, construction, and urban/regional planning describe the physical environment in which people work and live, especially those aspects that give quality to housing and living. Alexander's intention was to capture the essence of successful solutions to recurring design problems in architecture. Patterns describe these solutions in a formal way, abstracted away from specific examples. A pattern language would give people a language to be able to express (again) their own design preferences - to restore power to the people in shaping their own environments.
Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice. -- Christopher Alexander
A pattern language describes 253 patterns, ranging in scale from towns down to benches. Its force lies in the combinational expression of the patterns; each pattern is connected to higher and lower patterns:
Each pattern can exist in the world only to the extent that it is supported by other patterns: the larger patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of the same size that surround it, and the smaller patterns which are embedded in it. (A pattern language, p. xiii).
Ideas from this book have been embraced by programmers. See: Software design patterns book.
Interaction Design pattern collections
The last years a couple of pattern collections for Interaction Design have emerged:- Amsterdam Collection of Interaction Design Patterns
- Jenifer Tidwell' patterns
- The Interaction Design Patterns Page
Shortcomings of existing collections
Differences between patterns and styleguides
Using patterns
Writing patterns
Related concepts
-- ArthurClemens - 27 Jul 2003