[Builders] can use this solution
a million times over, without ever
doing it the same way twice [ 1].
Software patterns have evolved
independently of their architectural origins, and even architects
find this worthy of comment. A
recent architectural publication
notes “[Software] patterns are also
independent of the software users’
requirements and refer to categories that are more important to
the software’s programmer” [ 22].
Components of a pattern
language. The Cognitive
Dimensions of Notations framework has become a valuable
tool for specialist applications,
and especially for addressing
the usability of programming
tools, but this concern for the
needs of programmers seems to
have discouraged broader recognition of how universal these
patterns in user experience
really are. In particular, the
ongoing search for a more formal basis (“What is the space in
which these are dimensions?”
“What is their cognitive base?”,
“How can the interaction patterns be formalized?”) has
distracted attention from the
simple need to record and disseminate experience patterns.
Because these aspects of
experience depend on information structures rather
than simple visual features,
and because they are experienced over the course of time
rather than in direct reading
or manipulation of a static
display, it is not always easy
to point to a specific piece of a
user interface and say, “There
it is.” Viscosity gained currency
as a descriptive term because
it resonated with people who
shared (the frustration of)
that specific experience. But
many of the dimensions are
not so readily recognized. This
article marks a starting point
for describing them in terms
of structures in the user’s
experience, rather than as formal principles. For example,
the relevant evidence could
be presented as narratives,
together with guidance helping the practitioner understand
the ways that those narratives
arise from, are supported by,
or compensate for features of
the environment. This is work
in progress and we welcome
feedback toward our goals.
nity has lost the perspective
of empowering users to work
with their own information
structures. It is time to recover
that focus, by collecting and
disseminating patterns of
user experience with structured information. We could
apply such a pattern language
to help us design humane
systems, rather than being
distracted by the changing
technical structures and ornaments that arrive with each
generation of UI renderings.
[ 17] Blackwell, A.F.,
Britton, C., Cox, A.
Green, T.R.G., Gurr,
C.A., Kadoda, G.F.,
Kutar, M., Loomes,
M., Nehaniv, C. L.,
Petre, M., Roast, C.,
Roes, C., Wong, A.
and Young, R. M.
“Cognitive Dimensions
of Notations: Design
Tools for Cognitive
Technology.” In
Cognitive Technology
2001 (Volume 2117), ed.
Beynon, M., Nehaniv,
C.L., and Dautenhahn,
K., 325–341. Springer-Verlag, 2001.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Alan Blackwell is Reader in
Interdisciplinary Design at
the Cambridge Computer
Laboratory, with prior quali-
fications in professional
engineering, computing, and experimental
psychology. He has 12 years experience of
designing industrial systems, electronic,
and software products. He has taught
design courses and supervised postgradu-
ate design research students in computing,
architecture, psychology, languages, music
and engineering. He is co-director of the
Crucible network for research in interdisci-
plinary design.
Patterns of User Experience
Can Empower Users
The key insight for thinking
about abstract experience of
representational systems is to
recognize that the users of systems are ultimately concerned
with navigating and configuring an information structure,
just as users of a building are
ultimately concerned with
navigating and configuring the structure of space.
The essential benefit from
pattern languages of user experience, for the HCI profession,
should be to understand what
kind of experiences people have
with information structures.
The patterns that we have
described here—changing your
mind, seeing dependencies,
leaving informal notes—should
be key concerns for designers
of systems that offer users the
power to configure and customize software for themselves.
The technical focus in the
past on programming pattern
languages has led to a focus on
specific UI widgets and engineering concerns, such that
the pattern-language commu-
[ 18] Fincher, S.
“Patterns for HCI and
Cognitive Dimensions:
Two Halves of the
Same Story?” In
Proc. 14th Workshop
of the Psychology of
Programming Interest
Group (2002): 156–172.
[ 19] van Welie, M.
Interaction Design
Pattern Library; http://
www.welie.com/pat-
terns/ index.php/
Sally Fincher is professor of
computing education at the
University of Kent. She has
a special interest in pat-
terns and pattern languag-
es for HCI, including The
[ 20] Alexander, C.
The Timeless Way
of Building. Oxford
University Press, 1978.
Pattern Gallery site tracking the variety of
forms that HCI patterns take. She is joint
editor of the journal Computer Science
Education, and actively promotes and
investigates techniques for the representation and sharing of teaching practice.
Fincher is a senior fellow of the UK Higher
Education Academy, a fellow of the Royal
Society of Arts and, a distinguished scientist of the ACM.
[ 21] Fincher, S. and
Utting, I. “Pedagogical
Patterns: Their Place in
the Genre.” In Proc. 7th
Ann. Conf. on Innovation
and Technology in
Computer Science
Education (2002):
199–202.
[ 22] Scheurer,
F. “Architectural
Algorithms and the
Renaissance of the
Design Pattern.” In
Pattern: Ornament,
Structure, and Behavior,
ed. Gleiniger, A. and
Vrachliotis, G., 41–55.
Basel: Birkhäuser, 2009.
March + April 2010
DOI: 10.1145/1699775.1699782
© 2010 ACM 1072-5220/10/0300 $10.00
