UI Design Patterns

There's little new under the sun, even in high tech. Many of the design problems we encounter have been tackled before, whether in other software applications or in the "real world." Instead of reinventing the wheel for each new challenge, designers have begun capturing best practices in an easily referenced format: design patterns.

This makes the job of designing needed widgets faster and less error-prone. Let's say, for instance, that you need to include a calendar widget in your website. Instead of thinking through all the permutations on your own, why not start from an established calendar pattern so you don't forget to account for leap year, or formatting differences, or any of a dozen other gotchas? True, a calendar is a well-known metaphor. All the more reason to not have to re-think it yourself every time you need one.

The most common argument against design patterns warns against over-dependence on them. Blind adherence to someone else's design, no matter how well thought out it was, can lead you to overlook flaws in the pattern, as well as potentially more creative or more elegant ways to achieve your goal. I don't disagree with this warning!

Incidentally, design patterns can also cover best practices regarding common programming problems, though this lens focuses purely on the UI end of things for now.