The discussion so far seems to center on the capturing-best-practice interpretation of patterns, which is certainly the most established one.
But I tend to find more potential in the notion of inspirational patterns. Mini-lecture as follows: The way I see it, design combines many activities but the two backbones throughout most design processes are to Create and to Assess. To Create means to generate ideas (can be new ideas, can be variations, can be reframings, ... doesn't matter for this discussion). To Assess means to judge the merits of those ideas. In order to Create, the designer needs a repertoire of formats or exemplars that he/she matches against the situation at hand. A broad repertoire means better chances of coming up with ideas, many ideas, varied ideas. And this is where inspirational patterns come in. It is possible for experienced designers to capture their experience from working in a certain genre by abstracting key ideas representing points in the space of design possibilities. These abstractions can be called inspirational patterns, and they can be communicated to other designers (who want to learn more about the genre at hand) using more or less structured templates. The other designers can extend their repertoires by studying the inspirational patterns and thus Create better. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=21539 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
