Introduction

Our culture advances as we expand our language. In 1977 Pattern Language was published and the grammar of design was forever changed. Alexander, Ishikawa, Silverstein, et. al. were examining buildings and greatly influenced architecture with the introduction of design patterns. Will Wright’s Sim City was greatly influenced by Pattern Language. In 1995 with the advent of object oriented computer languages, design patterns became part of software grammar with the publication of  Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software  by the GoF. There is also the Portland Pattern Repository created by Cunningham. In 2006 Jenifer Tidwell wrote about Patterns for Effective Interaction Design and Yahoo has published their Design Pattern Library for Web Developers. There are many other excellent examples that demonstrate the significance of design patterns.

A design patterns describes a problem, the context and a solution. A design pattern does not include the solution to a specific problem (e.g., code). It is a method to solve a common problem.  Yahoo,  Tidwel and others offer longer explanations.

Pattern language is a living language with new patterns being added and old patterns being revised. There is also debate and commentary on the design patterns. MultiPurposeRoom will highlight the design patterns I create and comment on others. I will also be using design patterns in my unpublished work, Multiple Paths to the Same Information, that will see some sunlight here. I hope this adds positively to the debates.

Related

User Interface Design Pattern Library Project at berkley.edu
WebsitePatterns at iawiki.net (Information Architects Wiki)