UXTalk #2: How do patterns help/hinder design processes and innovation?

We all agreed that using UI design patterns could significantly speed up both design and production processes. But not many patterns seem to exist for UX design. If you have any, please share them with us!

Some participants mentioned their use of UI patterns as a form of shorthand when it came to communicating designs within teams, building pattern libraries to share them. For very big and geographically dispersed teams, pattern libraries have solved the major problems of too many designers working on similar problems in different places and contributed to increased efficiency. On the flipside, when a pattern becomes obsolete “We have an anti-pattern library growing!” And when the threshold of acceptable commonality is reached “Then everyone’s personal tastes and history takes over!”

“You choose a library and then you build your own because you can’t help it.”

When it comes to innovation, whether a pattern helps or hinders the process seems largely dependent on the reasons which caused us to create and use the pattern in the first place:

- Human factors (physical/cognitive and social/cultural)

- Technological and materiel constraints (opportunities, limitations, medium-dependent interactions)

- Success (proven or perceived)

We all seemed to agree that changing technological and material constraints could lead to the emergence of new patterns. The current flagship for a “shifting paradigm” (although I would like to suggest that this is a perspective which is actually lagging behind the shift which already occurred ages ago elsewhere in the world) is of course the Iphone which offers up realms of possibilities for both interface, interaction and experience design thanks to touch-screen input, mobility, geolocalisation and a hardcore style guide.  “Iphone got us to scroll to get to the newest”

“If one app makes me want every other app to do the same…”

The next UXtalk – How can we sell UX? – is on Wednesday April 28. You can reserve your spot here: http://uxtalk-3.eventbrite.com/