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Patterns are the way to design meaningful experiences quickly. So how to write them?
Start by collecting frequently seen problems and solutions in a single place for comparison. Bring your team together to analyze common solutions: find similarities, unearth flaws, debate strategy, and then extract a principle that underlies everything. Publish the pattern as your “default” solution to recurring content problems.
I say pattern instead of principles to emphasize that you are looking for repeated moments in a user experience to codify into standards. A pattern says, “Here’s the way we do tooltips at Shark Lasers Incorporated.” Principles are loftier: “We never repeat ourselves at Shark Lasers Incorporated.”
Patterns come from the ground up. Principles come from top down. They are different flavors of the same thing. Both prevent unnecessary “thinking” in the design process because thinking takes time and uses up precious calories.
From Look for patterns
But there are strong patterns and bleh patterns. So, at the risk of being annoyingly meta, here are four principles for writing content patterns:
| Do this | Not this |
|---|---|
| Above all, be clear | Don’t hedge |
| Be brief | Don’t go on and on… |
| Have an opinion | Don’t be generic |
| Trust by default | Don’t tinker |
Designers look to patterns to answer a question, “What should I do here?” Tell them. Don’t hedge or use nuanced language. Even if it is a matter of taste (because all of them are), make a point that is unmistakable.
| Do this | Not this |
|---|---|
| Exit signs must be visible from 100 feet away | Exit signs should be positioned for good visibility |
| No children allowed | May not be suitable for children |
| Take with food | Don’t consume between meals |
Patterns use simple language and should provide directives to follow. Sometimes the principle part of it needs interpreting (“what counts as unwanted?”), but that’s the fun of being a designer. Artfully interpreting principles to solve problems is the designer’s job.
Be brief. A pattern can’t be followed if it’s not memorable. And they are hard to remember when they’re too long. Keep it short. Don’t add meandering clauses. Don’t justify every choice. (I had you at “brief” didn’t I?)
| Do this | Not this |
|---|---|
| Bridge out | Caution: The upcoming bridge has structural damage and is closed to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic |
| Avoid closing punctuation in bullets | Bullet points may or may not take bullet points depending on the situations. If your point is two or more sentences, use closing punctuation. If it’s one sentence try to recast as a short phrase (unless the rest of the bullet points take closing punctuation) |
| No shirt, no service | We kindly request that all patrons wear appropriate attire including shirts and footwear during their visit |
Every pattern is backed by some principle. (The “why” behind the pattern.) And strong principles are opinionated. If your principle is utterly uncontroversial (“Be helpful”) it will elicit yawns. For example, “Be clear” is not a strong point of view: “Above all, be clear” is, because it is saying that clarity is to prized above all other values. Other teams might disagree. I think they are dead wrong.
A pattern is ultimately an opinion that tells the reader: “We’ve debated this, so you don’t have to.” There are infinite ways to solve a problem. Patterns unblock designers so they don’t have to consider all of them.
| Do this | Not this |
|---|---|
| Museums should never charge admission | Museums should be accessible |
| Test all recipes 3+ times | Cookbooks should have reliable recipes |
| We don’t say please or sorry to the user | Be polite but not too polite |
It takes effort to learn patterns. Resist the temptation to refine patterns on every use, even when there’s a conflict. This will slow you down. It also leads to confusion and distrust. Patterns represent the most-considered current opinion on a recurring design problem. They can’t solve every problem. They are cookie cutters. Find a way to make it work if you can, and if you can’t, make a note to discuss it later.
| Do this | Not this |
|---|---|
| Follow the pattern | Call a meeting to debate the raison d’etre of the pattern the first time you try to use it |
That said, once a pattern is found to be unusable, prune it. Irrelevant patterns undermine the whole system.
See the Principles of content design