Yahoo! has recently released a
Design Pattern Library that looks like it will be a great resource in the future. A pattern library is a body of optimum solutions for common organizational and interface design challenges. The
IAwiki has a good definition:
Patterns are optimal solutions to common problems. As common problems are tossed around a community and are resolved, common solutions often spontaneously emerge. Eventually, the best of these rise above the din and self-identify and become refined until they reach the status of a Design Pattern.
What is cool about the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library is that it also links to a
Yahoo! UI Code Library that has some samples that the public can use to put patterns into practice.
Its important to review resources such as pattern libraries and
style guides when working on Web sites. Web developers and designers need to know how common problems are most efficiently solved, but content editors and authors also can benefit from some of the lessons these guides and libraries teach.
Knowing how to make your content usable is a valuable skill and these are the kinds of resources that make honing that skill possible.
While the Yahoo! Pattern Library only has a portion of content published, so I'm looking forward to see what they have to say about things like facted navigation and filtering/sorting/listing information.
Charles Wesley | Web Developer | SunGard Higher Education / Seattle University | wesleyc (at) seattleu (dot) edu