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Usability Methods Explained: Design Patterns

by: pidoco1 on Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 Time: 3:34 AM

What are design patterns?

In the world of interface design(https://pidoco.com/), design patterns are repeatable solutions to commonly occurring problems within a software program or, more precisely, its interface design. They are patterns of problems that keep occurring during the interface design process. Thus, they are written down and named with solutions to assist future designers. Design patterns function as a template for how to solve a problem and can be used in various situations and contexts. Design patterns are not finished designs. They are a guide that will help you to work out the kinks in your interface design concept by providing you with a solution template as a starting point.

Benefits of design patterns in interface design

Using design patterns can help you optimize your time during the creation of a new user interface design. Design patterns are proven and tested software development paradigms that assist you in solving all of the common problems that you encounter when crafting your interface design. Having an established problem solving template is a great way to fix or avoid errors in your new interface design because it either provides you with a direct solution or gives you a starting point to brainstorm and formulate your own solutions in the event that the design pattern doesn’t quite work for your problem. Reusing design patterns can help you to prevent the subtle issues that can cause major problems within your interface design, saving you time, energy, and possibly money.

Design patterns are also useful because they function like a code or a standard. Software developers and interface designers can use well-known and understood names for software interaction patterns to communicate with each other. This contributes to a better understanding and higher efficiency, both of which can support the collaborative nature of the interface design process. In addition, the design patterns are constantly being tested and improved by a multitude of interaction designers and information architects, since there is such a large network of professionals using them. The more people involved, the more diverse, creative, and useful the ideas, contributing to a dynamic design pattern evolution.

Types of design patterns

Design patterns are generally divided into three categories: Creational patterns, structural patterns, and behavioral patterns. It is up to you to discern which category contains a design pattern that can help you solve your interface design problem, but here is a brief explanation of each group for reference:

• Creational patterns: creational patterns are design patterns concerned with object creation mechanisms. They try to create objects that suit various software programming situations. A prototype pattern is an example of a creational pattern.

• Structural patterns: Structural patterns are design patterns that try to make the design process easier by establishing simple ways to recognize relationships between entities in your interface design. Structural patterns often pertain to the functionality of certain aspects of your interface design. For example: how do you hide complex code behind a simple interface?

• Behavioral patterns: Behavioral patterns recognize common communication patterns between objects and realize these patterns. Recognizing these patterns makes communication more flexible and fluid during the design process. These patterns are exemplified by communication algorithms within your interface design, or any commands that you may want your interface design to allow the user to execute.

Problems with design patterns

As with all methodologies, design patterns have been subject to criticism within the world of computer science. Design patterns attempt to standardize what are already accepted best practices by computer scientists. Standardization seems beneficial, but in practice it can result in the unnecessary duplication of code. Duplication is often a waste of time, and waste of time in your interface design process is unproductive and frustrating.

Design patterns are also a usability method for the technically advanced. If you do not have a good foundation in computer science, it will be difficult for you to understand or use design patterns while constructing your interface design(https://pidoco.com/en). Make sure that you keep your design process as realistically simple and efficient as you can— yet, this may mean that you may have to spend some time making yourself familiar with using design patterns in order to fully understand them and get the most benefit out of using them.

About the Author

Pidoco.com – Interface Design(https://pidoco.com/), Wireframe Software, Wireframe Tools, Interface Design Software(https://pidoco.com/en), Clickable Wireframes, Usability Testing and Digital Paper Prototyping. Fast wireframe creation and remote website usability testing lead to an improved conversion!

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