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November 09, 2002
Pattern-oriented Web Design Book
The Design of Sites is the first web design book I've seen that focuses exclusively on patterns. Patterns in this context means, repeatable "recipies" for design that tend to produce reliable results. This isn't cookie-cutter design; it's not a list of design rules or page templates. Instead, it's a system of characteristic approaches or abstract solutions that tend to be present in sucessful designs.
The downloadable sample chapter talks about a "Process Funnel" pattern, when you're checking out at an e-commerce site or completing a multi-page form, you're in a "process funnel." There are specific design options to make these easy and quick (for example stripping out extraneous navigation elements during the process), and the collection of those options makes up the pattern. Again, not a "template" but a set of general rules to apply to your own work.
Software designers have been using patterns for some time. In fact, it occurs to me that being versed in UI patterns might help communication with programmers on projects; I think I lot of programmers (even some Flash programmers) use patterns to some extent.
The idea of patterns in design comes from Christopher Alexander, who worked the theory out in three long books. The most relevant of those for the web is maybe "The Timeless Way of Building", which gives some idea of how high Alexander set his goals. (Here's a nice review of "A Pattern Language" by Steward Brand.)
There's a nice list of resources organized by pattern at the Design of Sites site.
Posted by Andrew at November 9, 2002 03:54 PM