About Design Pattern Icons
Design Pattern Icons is a study of various patterns found in software development, marketing and building architecture. The work attempts to flatten these three areas where patterns have been a powerful tool for simplifying and abstracting concrete details from architects or analysts. Patterns are only effective when used to build larger systems, and so they are inherrently compositional. this piece attempts to compose patterns across disciplines rather than within disciplines. There are significant historical examples of cross-disciplinary study leading to innovation. Through cross-disciplinary pattern exploration, design innovation can occur.
The work has a "gallery mode", where patterns are composed randomly, as well as an interactive mode. When in the interactive mode, users can navigate the piece using:
- "A" and "D" keys
- for the Persona Axis
- "W" and "S" keys
- for the Software Axis
- "Q" and "E" keys
- for the Building Axis
Software Axis
In the last 20 years, software development has experienced a growth of design patterns that aim to provide a terminology for representing portions of a software application. With the rise of Object-Oriented Programming in the 90s, design patterns allowed software architects to provide meaning for different software objects in the larger context of an application. The following patterns have been identified by Martin Fowler and as well as the Gang of Four:
- Plug-in
- Bridge
- Observer
- Model
- Factory
- Adapter
- Façade
- Controller
Persona Axis
In marketing, the notion of a persona enables business analysts to make generic judgements about a target demographic. The persona is everyone and no one simultaneously. This piece looks at some simple personas that could identify certain cross sections of a population.
- Wealthy
- Skinny
- Tall
- Obese
- Athletic
- Infirm
- Girl
- Boy
Building Axis
Christopher Alexander, a succesful American architect who is also attributed for influencing the development of Object-Oriented Programming, invented what he refers to as a Pattern Language. Like the software architects known as The Gang of Four, Alexander provides a listing of patterns that alleviate redundancies in building design. A sample of eight patterns were rendered in this piece.
- Pools of Light
- Bed Alcove
- Filtered Light
- Bathing Room
- Bus Stop
- Corner Doors
- Column Connection
- Arcades
Design Pattern Icons is a small collection of software, building and human design patterns that have been rendered as icons by Jon Lebensold.