Bringing Interaction Specifications to HCI Design Patterns

Architectural patterns were originally defined in a narrative style, enriched by relevant contextual information [Alexander 1977]. They described the motivation and rationale from the point of view of the persons who would use the “architectural product” described by the pattern. Software design patterns, on the other hand, are defined in a more structured format, and the motivation is typically described from the point of view of system components [Gamma et al. 1995]. HCI design patterns have tried to bring together the advantages of a more structured description, which eases reading and scanning, and the richness of contextual information [van Welie 2001]. However, they fall short of directly supporting design, in that they provide information about good design solutions, but not a tool to model the resulting application using them.