Putting It All Together: Pattern Languages for Interaction Design

© 1997 Copyright on this material is held by the authors.

The Challenge: Complexity and Diversity

Interaction design is becoming an increasingly complex and diverse activity. It is becoming more complex because existing technologies are becoming smaller and cheaper and thus more ubiquitous, even as new sensing and effector technologies are entering the scene. This complexity is exacerbated by the task of integrating technologies into workplaces which we are recognizing as complex sociotechnical systems filled with customs and practices which we disrupt at our peril. Simultaneously, interaction design is becoming more diverse, drawing on disciplines ranging from anthropology to visual design, making the domain experts (i.e. end users) a more integral part of the process. The diversification of interaction design is also being driven by customization: as systems become increasingly customizable more design is being done in the workplace by MIS departments, outside consultants, and the end users themselves.

A Possible Solution: Pattern Languages

So we have a rapidly expanding game: more players (lacking a common background), and more technology, projected onto workplaces which we are learning more and more about. This increasing complexity and diversity can be source of richness, or of chaos. If CHI is, indeed, looking to the future, we need to explore ways of dealing with the increasing complexity and diversity of the interaction design field.

In this workshop, we would like to explore one possible way of putting it all together. Our model is the Pattern Language developed by Christopher Alexander and his colleagues in architecture and urban design. The basic approach is to closely examine particular cases, attempt to identify recurring patterns and integrate them into a language of relatively concrete patterns [1, 2].

Alexander's Pattern Language consists of a network of over 250 patterns. The patterns cover a wide range of scales; each pattern typically points to smaller scale patterns which can support it, and larger scale level patterns in which it may participate. These patterns focus on the interactions between the physical form of the built environment, and the way in which its form inhibits or facilitates various sorts of personal and social behavior within it.

Goals of the Workshop

We believe that Pattern Languages have two important advantages for interaction design. First, due to their concrete nature, they offer the potential for functioning as a lingua franca among the multiple disciplines involved in design, and between designers and domain experts (i.e. end users). Second, because patterns embrace both physical and social worlds, they offer a tool for representing and reflecting on the sociotechnical systems that pervade the workplace.

This two day workshop will explore ways of applying Pattern Languages to interaction design problems. The approaches in which we're interested include (but are not necessarily limited to):

• HCI Guidelines: Embodying HCI Guidelines as patterns
• Organization Design: Using patterns to design organizational structures and practices (e.g. [3])
• Transposing Alexandrian Patterns: Adapting existing patterns documented in "A Pattern Language" to new situations (e.g. cyberspace)
• Patterns as an Organizational Practice: The process of establishing pattern-making and use as part of a development organization's practices
• Workplace Description: Using patterns to clearly and succinctly describe particular workplaces, in order to understand possible impacts of new technologies (e.g. [4]).

Further Reading

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

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

3. Coplien, J. O. "A Generative Development-Process Pattern Language." In J.O. Coplien and D.C. Schmidt (eds.) Pattern Languages of Program Design. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley, 1995.

4. Erickson, T. "Supporting Interdisciplinary Design: Towards a Workplace Pattern Language." Draft chapter. In preparation, 1996 (see http://www.research.apple.com/personal/Tom_Erickson/Patterns.html)

Also see http://www.research.apple.com/personal/Tom_Erickson/PatternsWorkshop.html for an extended workshop description, that will be updated as appropriate.