I'm about to give my presentation on patterns in about 18 hours or so. Having just finished my slides 18 hours ago you can say I'm knee deep in thinking about patterns. A few musings coming out of the muck:
1. The person who brought up context & intention nailed it on the head. Alexander is clear that a pattern languague is built from a n "if-then" ststement where "if" defines the problem and then defines the solution, but the solution also includes justifications so that both context "if" and intention "then" are included in the very definition of the pattern itself. 2. While today it is clear that Alexander uses his patterns for political-social change, the original ideas behind patterns is to catalog CANONICAL repeated observed problem/solution sets. I highlight the word "canonical" b/c I believe this is the key differentiation between patterns and guidelines. Guidelines or style guides are single focus and their ubiquity or uniqueness is not really relevant. It is the solution that works for the context of those guidelines. Patterns need to work across much broader but still well defined contexts to be useful. 3. There is a danger in using patterns as prescriptive and thus designers who dislike prescription (as opposed to engineers who revel in prescription) are turned off by many uses of patterns. However, if the intentionality of the collection is for the purpose of not suggestion or prescription, but rather for reflection and exploration, the patterns hold value that designers can engage with like they do with other elements of the design process (foundations, personas, empathy models, etc.). 4. I think limiting patterns to a "language" doesn't do what Jennifer Tidwell discusses in her book, which is the creation of "best practices. This is something I'm not sure I agree w/ her on, but I think her use of "best practices" works with where I have landed (this week) with patterns as a design tool for reflection and articulation. 5. Patterns as a point of articulation are powerful for designers who need to move beyond abstraction and into tangible communication in order to convey the goals and reasons for the solutions they do finally end up with. Anyway, this is me. for now. We'll see what type of response I get by 6:30p today. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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
