UXTalk #2: Where do UI and UX design patterns come from?

Many User Interface design “patterns” are simply designs based on existing conventions found elsewhere. A very good example of this would be the “calendar” with its presentation of time, analogue to the paper calendars we’ve been using for decades. While analogue conventions serve as points of reference for the user we should also be aware of their culturally and contextually-bound aspects and limitations.

Others, both in UI and UX, come from what a few participants termed “machine” or “system” constraints. Such root causes are not always apparent and indeed we argued that a good designer would (should?) appreciate the constraint as an opportunity for creativity.

A great example of such a constraint is the “Shopping Cart”. As Steph Troeth explained, “It was often understood that we took navigation away so that people wouldn’t get lost in the buying process, or because we wanted to streamline their buying activity. In reality, it was just tricky to manage sessions.  Programmatically, it wasn’t an easy task to keep different states of user actions. For example, using the “back” button could completely mess up your buying experience. It wasn’t until session management made progress that we were able to get better both technically and from the UX perspective.“

Yet another category of design patterns are designs that become patterns via repeated selection. Whether the reasons for choosing them are because they have proved to be “successful” via measurement or community assent or whether they are assumed to be successful for other reasons such as market leadership, brand reputation, newness or personal taste, we could argue that some of them end up becoming patterns in spite of themselves. Do you agree?

Coming next: How do design patterns help/hinder design processes and innovation?