Web Design Patterns: Investigating User Goals and Browsing Strategies

Design patterns document in a systematic way design solutions to recurrent problems and they are expressed using non-technical terms, so that a wider audience can understand them. Thus they could be useful tools to improve communication in interdisciplinary teams and to integrate end-users in participatory design processes. However, the difficulties of using patterns go beyond the lexicon used in the patterns description. The individuals who might use the patterns may be following different strategies when browsing a collection of patterns, strategies that are determined by their goal at a specific point during the development process. Moreover, the strategy they follow can have some influence in the quality of the proposed solution. In this paper we describe an empirical study that has been performed to answer some of these questions. In the study we gathered information on browsing strategies and user goals when using a patterns catalogue to design a web system. We also analyzed the relation among the goal and the strategy as well as their impact in the quality of the use of the patterns. This investigation is part of a larger project intended to design patterns catalogues that take into account the goals and expectations of their end-users, who are not necessarily experts either on web design or on design patterns.