Design patterns
When figuring out a user flow and corresponding wireframes to address a user’s problem, rather than starting from scratch, it’s often times much better to start with a design pattern that can be modified to fit your needs. This benefits both the user and the designer.
For the UX designer, a lot of time is saved by not having to reinvent the wheel each time they need to come up with a design solution. Being familiar with various design patterns to address common UX/UI problems makes you a good designer. Just like mathematicians and artists building upon the work of others, UX designer do the same, and this benefits designers as a whole.
For the user, design patterns reduce cognitive strain by giving them something they are familiar with. Users don’t have to think too much about what the next steps are to move forward when they’re already familiar with a given interface. If one can’t find an existing pattern for an interaction, one must be prepared to justify the new pattern, explain what the benefits are and rationalize its usefulness.
I occasionally reference some sites that give examples of design patterns, such as UI Patterns, Pattern Tap, Welie and also Dribbble and Pinterest. But from what I’ve seen, there aren’t many great online resources out there for design patterns. Many are disorganized and off topic, the sites have been abandoned, or there is a pay wall.
For me personally, most often the best resource is looking at other apps. Going through the apps you use in your daily life, checking out what is trending in the app store, seeing what your friends, family and colleagues use is a great way to familiarize yourself with various design patterns.
For a recent project with Constellation brands, we borrowed patterns from Instagram and the NY Times cooking app because they seemed like possible solutions to what we were trying to achieve. While one is a photo/video sharing social network, and the other is a recipe and cooking resource, they each utilized design patterns that we could rework into our project, which was a product and location finder and learning tool for employees.
As the cover image implies, when we A/B tested our prototypes with users, they preferred option B which utilized a modified Instagram pattern. The main reasons why users preferred this was because the images were big, and the layout looked like something they were familiar with and used on a regular basis.
Using a design pattern saved us time and made the user happy. This was for just one small part of a larger app, and we utilized other design patterns for different areas of the app, reworking and modifying to meet our needs and making sure that everything worked together as a cohesive product.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of design patterns, and also the importance of constantly looking at various apps first hand to stay up to date and knowledgeable about design patterns and the problems they address. Rather than only working hard, work smart as well and save yourself some time, learn something new, and make your users happy!
