Design pattern

Draft

Definition

“The concept of a pattern language has been developed by Christopher Alexander and his colleagues in architecture and urban design. In brief, a pattern language is a network of patterns of varying scales; each pattern is embodied as a concrete prototype, and is related to larger scale patterns which it supports, and to smaller scale patterns which support it. The goal of a pattern language is to capture patterns in their contexts, and to provide a mechanism for understanding the non-local consequences of design decisions.” (Erickson)

“A pattern language is a system of best practices for a given field of endeavor. Each practice is expressed as a pair of statements: one statement describes a conflict and the other a resolution to that conflict.” (Weinstein 2007)

“Design patterns are used to describe typical solutions for recurring design problems. They help to refine and complete system structures.”

Design patterns in education

• Montessori Design Patterns from Leone Learning Systems.

Links

• The Interaction Design Patterns Page, contains information about resources related to pattern languages for interaction design.

References

• Alexander, C. A (1979) Timeless Way of Building. New York: Oxford University Press.

• Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., Silverstein, M., Jacobson, M., Fiksdahl-King, I., & Angel, S. A (1977) A Pattern Language. New York: Oxford University Press.

• Erickson, T. "Lingua Francas for Design: Sacred Places and Pattern Languages." In The Proceedings of DIS 2000 (Brooklyn, NY, August 17-19, 2000). New York: ACM Press, 2000, pp 357-368. HTML

• Thomas Erickson, Supporting Interdisciplinary Design: Towards Pattern Languages for Workplaces, HTML

• Richard N Griffiths, Don't Write Guidelines ­ Write Patterns!, HTML

• Weinstein, D. (2007). The Social Architecture of A Successful Collaborative Learning Environment. Article submitted to Computers and Writing Online 2007. accessed through http://acadianamoo.org/cwonline2007/index.html.