[IxDA Discuss] good template examples

[Mike Baxter]

Jack

>If I understand the discussion correctly, you're talking about reusable
>design solutions, whereas Andrea was inquiring about what I would call
>"spec" techniques (one step before the solutions themselves)

Interesting point!

One of the issues we've been discussing about e-commerce design patterns is
the extent to which they are design solutions (in an almost copy-and-paste
sense). The original concept of design patterns (Christopher Alexander's
achitectural and planning patterns) was that they were a set of principles
to be interpreted and embodied in a multitude of different ways to create
novel and potentially innovative solutions to a common problem in a
particular context. Now, I agree that a lot of the design patterns we see
relating to interaction design (including to some degree those published by
Yahoo!) focus on the details of the solution rather than its underlying
principles.

The challenge, therefore, is to develop design patterns that ARE about
principles and thus are 'one step before the solutions themselves'.

Cheers

Mike