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Reading group report

Topic: Design patterns
Date: July 12, 2004

Readings

Overview of topic

The aim of this session was to introduce the topic of design patterns and consider them in relation to design guidelines and heuristics.

  • Patterns emerged in the late 1960s from the work of architect Christopher Alexander
  • Patterns are concrete enough to use as rules of thumb, but sufficiently abstract to apply to a wide range of situations
  • Patterns are more detailed than guidelines or heuristics, and have a relatively common format which includes:
    • Problem
    • Context
    • Forces
    • Solution
  • A set of patterns is referred to as a pattern language
  • Patterns are said to be beneficial because they facilitate communication with others working on a design project, and they serve as a tool to practice design
  • One important point to note about Alexander's approach was that it was based on observation of human behaviour and experience.
  • There are patterns used in various disciplines.
  • Patterns in user interface design are a relatively late and not well-developed, addition to the field of patterns.

Summary

Ten people attended this session. There were apologies from Shanan Holm, Tom Bolton.

  • Jenny Dewar, Library
  • Stephanie Foott, Library
  • Helen Palmer, SSD
  • Daniel May, FLT
  • Paul Trahair, FLT
  • Claire Nicholls, FLT
  • Michael Lowe, Education
  • Dey Alexander, WRD
  • Guy Sangwine, WRD
  • Scott Rippon, WRD
  • Dave Hollands, ITS

Daniel May gave a short, interesting and entertaining overview of the development of patterns in various disciplines, and in the methods for pattern development used by the patterns community. Thanks Daniel, for "sharing the love" of patterns.

The group then discussed the readings, with a focus on the discussion questions which were:

  • In what ways do patterns differ from guidelines (last month's topic) and heuristics (May topic)?
  • Would patterns be more useful to designers, and in particular novice designers, than heuristics or guidelines?
  • What other advantages do patterns offer?
  • What problems might be involved in using design patterns? What are their limitations?

Some issues or concerns expressed were:

  • Patterns (at least some of them) just look like guidelines
  • How can we use patterns? We can't just read pattern languages. How do we put them into practice?
  • Patterns should only ever be the starting point of a design, they need to be tested with end users
  • Patterns might seem to be more useful to novice designers, but research (and opinion expressed in the meeting) indicates they might not be
  • How do we know which set of patterns are authoritative? Which ones can we trust?

Some patterns that might be worth looking at:

  • Douglas K. van Duyne, et al, The Design of Sites: Patterns, Principles, and Processes for Crafting a Customer-Centered Web Experience
  • Ian Graham, A Pattern Language for Web Usability
  • Martin Welie: Web design patterns