January 9, 2012
New pattern editor, simplified navigation and more

We had a great last year with Patternry, and want to thank You for it! We are extremely happy for all the new users and the feedback we have received from you. Based on your feedback we are making Patternry better and more useful all the time.

Currently Patternry is a great service for building and sharing user interface design pattern libraries, but in the future we want to make it a more dynamic resource that will help developers and designers communicate better while also helping them all the way from sketching to coding and finally to testing.

Today we introduced some big changes that we believe will make Patternry a better fit for you:

1. New pattern editor.

The new editor will not just look better and feel more simple, but it will also allow you to add custom thumbnails for your patterns. In addition, images, links and source code examples will be possible to add in the editor, and not only on the pattern page.

New pattern editor - Patternry

2. Simplified navigation.

Previously the Open Library could be reached from both personal and shared workspaces. Having a public library inside a private workspace was causing some confusion, and therefore we changed it so that the Open Library will be accessed from the workspace selection and not from the workspaces anymore. Also, we improved the navigation within workspaces to make it more clear what can be done and where.

New navigation | Patternry

3. Visual improvements.

We implemented some new visual design ideas in the new pattern editor and the manage pattern pages, and decided to use them also everywhere else where appropriate. There is some more to it than just shiny new graphics, for example we added sorting to the tables. Now Patternry should be even more enjoyable to use.

What’s coming next?

Custom pattern templates. In the coming months we are going to introduce custom pattern templates. If our standard pattern template doesn’t fit your needs, you can create a custom template and choose what elements your patterns should contain and name them as you want. And if you later on want to edit a template, the change will apply to all the patterns using your template.

Special promotion

Check out the improvements, and take advantage of our special promotion by creating a Shared Workspace, if you haven’t tried it yet. We are offering 25 % off on our Team plan until the end of January, if you pay in six month intervals. To take advantage of the offer, Sign In and select the “promo plan” from the Create a Shared Workspace-page.

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December 11, 2011
New UI design pattern added: Table Sorter

We are happy to publish Table Sorter -pattern written by one of our users, anothersusan.
 
Table sorter allows user to control data order in tables by including sort option for categories (i.e., column headings).

Table-sorter-main-example_detail_big

Have you written a UI design pattern you want to get published in Patternry Open Library? Send it to us for review and if it gets published, you’ll receive a free one month subscription for the Pattern Library Builder.

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December 6, 2011
Upcoming improvements

Hi there. We have done recently a lot of smaller improvements, such as speeding up Patternry Website and making it easier to get started with the Personal Workspace. Now it’s time for some bigger improvements. Here is what we are working on next:

Planned for this year:

1. New pattern editor and manage patterns page. The new editor will not just look better and feel more simple, but it will also allow you to add custom thumbnails for your patterns. In addition, images, links and source code examples will be possible to add in the editor, and not only in the pattern page.

New manage patterns page

2.  Simplified navigation. Currently Open Library can be reached from both personal and shared workspaces. Having a public library inside a private workspace has caused some confusion, and therefore it will be moved elsewhere. Also, the navigation within a workspaces will be improved to make it more clear what can be done and where.

Next year:

3. Custom pattern templates. In the beginning of next year we’re planning to introduce custom pattern templates. If our standard pattern template doesn’t fit your needs, you can create a custom template and choose what elements your patterns should contain and name them as you want. And if you later on want to edit a template, the change will apply to all the patterns using your template.

So, that’s what will happen next. Questions? Comments? Let us know in the comments-section.

Onward!

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October 10, 2011
New UI design pattern added to our Open Library: Required Form Fields

Indicating clearly required or optional fields on a form tells the user what needs to be filled in to complete the form. If most of the form fields are optional, use text or asterisk (*) next to each field to indicate required fields. If you choose asterisk, provide a legend which tells the meaning of it.

If most questions on a form require an answer, indicating all required fields would add unnecessary info to the form. In this case indicate the ones that are optional using an “Optional” text next to the optional field labels.

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September 15, 2011
Desiging great interfaces is all about communication

There has been great discussion on LinkedIn about the benefits of UI design patterns. Some of the benefits mentioned by different people are improved consistency across company’s products, reduced design time, code reuse, improved usability etc. These are all really good points, but I especially liked what Jared Spool wrote:

In my thinking, the primary benefit of patterns is the conversation that goes into creating the patterns, maintaining the library, and choosing the right elements for each design project. That dialogue educates the team on matching the design elements to the desired behaviors in the users.

We do know from our past research that the more teams talk about design, the better the designs they produce. If you want great designs, give them something to talk about. Design patterns are one way to get there.

This is exactly what I think too. In-house design pattern libraries encourage and facilitate discussion. Great interfaces get built when developers, designers and managers communicate and share their ideas clearly, and design pattern libraries help make this happen.

-Janne

September 11, 2011
"Why use Patternry?"-page added

We added a “Why use Patternry?”-page few days ago. Feedback’s welcome, as always!

Why Use Patternry? - page

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September 6, 2011
20+ articles on why and how to use design patterns

In this blog post I share with you the best articles, blog posts and presentations that discuss why you should use UI design patterns, how to build pattern libraries, and how to use patterns in everyday work. If you are not familiar with the concept of UI design patterns, start by reading “Design Patterns, part 1” by Martinj van Welie & Bill Scott, or visit Patternry Open UI Pattern library and just take a look to see what design patterns are all about.

Why?

Here I have collected the articles and discussions that explain the benefits of design patterns, components, and pattern libraries, from different perspectives.

Why have a design pattern library? - dezining interactions

Erin Malone, author of Designing Social Interfaces and former curator of the Yahoo! Design Pattern library, explains on her blog why you should build a design pattern library.

What is the best way to explain the value of interface guidelines and interaction design patterns to upper management? - Quora  

Discussion on Quora on how to communicate the value of a pattern library to company management.

Components, Patterns, and Frameworks! Oh My! - User Interface Engineering

Jared M. Spool explains the re-use trinity: Patterns, Components, and Interaction Design Frameworks.

The power of patterns: Bridging IA, design and development - Nonlinear Creations

A blog post by Amanda Shiga, discussing the benefits of a design pattern library.

So You Wanna Build a Library, Eh? - Boxes & Arrows

Nathan Curtis, author of Modular Web Design, writes about the big questions to ask before building a pattern or component library in this Boxes & Arrows article.

Impact of Design Patterns - Discussion on LinkedIn

Discussion on the benefits of design pattern libraries. “…the primary benefit of patterns is the conversation that goes into creating the patterns, maintaining the library, and choosing the right elements for each design project.” - Jared M. Spool.

Design Patterns: An Evolutionary Step to Managing Complex Sites - User Interface Engineering

Jared M. Spool, CEO of User Interface Engineering, explains how design patterns can help organizations, and what it takes to build a pattern library.

From Pattern to Component - UX Magazine

“A component is a reusable building block that fully encapsulates all the code necessary to put a design pattern into action”.

Pattern Languages for Interaction Design - An Interview with Erin Malone, Christian Crumlish, and Lucas Pettinati - Boxes & Arrows

Erin, Christian and Lucas talk about design patterns, pattern libraries, styleguides, and innovation.

How?

Here are links to resources that teach you how to write design patterns and build pattern libraries.

How does your UX team generate Design Patterns (which become specifications) and communicate the specs across product teams during parallel product development cycles? - Quora

Discussion on Quora on how design teams generate and communicate patterns.

What is the best tool for publishing and collaborating on user interface patterns and guidelines?

Another Quora discussion, about the tools for creating, sharing and organizing design pattern libraries.

Postcard Patterns : An Agile User Interface Pattern Creation Process - SlideShare 

Ian Swinson & Jason Winters from SalesForce.com present a fast and lightweight way to write design patterns.

An Introduction to Using Patterns in Web Design - 37Signals

Introduction on how to use patterns in Web design by Ryan Singer.

Tools for Creating Pattern Libraries - User Interface Engineering

Jared Spool writes about pattern library tools.

The Elements of a Design Pattern - User Interface Engineering

Read what people at User Interface Engineering put into their design pattern descriptions.

Tools for building a pattern library

Discussion on IxDA about design pattern library tools.

RDVO - Building UX Pattern Libraries

Ben Zipkin’s slides about building pattern libraries at RDVO.

Personal Pattern Books - Wireframes Magazine

A blog post about personal pattern books by Jakub Linowski, the author of Wireframes Magazine.

Implementing a Pattern Library in the Real World: A Yahoo! Case Study - Boxes & Arrows

An article about how to build a UI design pattern library, written by former Yahoo! Design Pattern library curators.

Design Patterns: Introduction - Functioning Form

A group of designers discuss the current and future role of design patterns in the real world.

Developing a UI Design Pattern Library - A Case Study

Janne Lammi, Co-founder of Patternry.com (that’s me), wrote his Master’s Thesis on building a design pattern library.

Designing with patterns in the real world: Lessons from Yahoo! And Comcast

Christian Crumlish’s presentation slides from IA Summit 2008.

Working With a Pattern Library Day to Day

Erin Malone’s article on how to work with a pattern library on a daily basis.



Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments.

Did you know you can use Patternry to create, share and organize design pattern libraries? Get started for free!

August 25, 2011
New Features & Improvements: Adding Code Snippets, Simplified Sign Up Process

Today we launched a few improvement to Patternry.

1. You can now add code snippets to patterns

There was a “Code examples” section in each pattern in the previous version of Patternry, but it only let you add links to the examples that were hosted elsewhere, not the actual code examples. We have now added an ability to save code snippets to patterns, and moved the links to code examples under “Useful links” section.

You can now save code snippets to patterns

2. From now on, people can sign up without email confirmation

We’re now allowing everyone to sign up and start using Patternry immediately, instead of asking people to confirm their email address before they can sign in.

In addition to these, there are some smaller improvements that enhance the overall user experience.

We hope you like the changes

Thanks again for your support and enjoy Patternry!

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August 9, 2011
Patternry Exits Beta - Create and Share Design Pattern Libraries Easier than Ever

In a year Patternry has grown from a collection of design patterns to a tool for individuals and companies to create and share their own design pattern libraries. We are now ready to exit beta, and to offer our users a service we believe to be the best in the market for creating, sharing and maintaining pattern libraries.

In the latest release we have focused on improving the user experience based on the feedback we have got from our beta users. An other important focus was to answer the needs of those business customers for whom Patternry has become a critical business tool. These users want the reassurance and quality that comes from a paid service.

However, we don’t want to forget those users who use Patternry for their personal use, so besides of the paid plans we will offer a totally free plan too.

Patternry Plans & Pricing

Free plan (Personal Workspace) is for people who want to build a pattern library for their personal use. Using a Personal Workspace people can easily build a personal design resource containing the patterns that are particularly useful to them.

Users with the free plan can also be active on the public Open Library, and help improve this open resource developed for the UX community. We hope UX professionals will showcase and share their design knowledge by writing new patterns to the Open Library or by adding links, images or comments to the patterns.

Paid plans (Shared Workspace) are for companies and organizations who want to organize, share and collaborate on their design patterns and pattern libraries within the company. With a Shared Workspace organizations can create unlimited number of pattern libraries which can be shared with selected people. Shared Workspaces have their own web address (mycompany.patternry.com) with an encrypted and secure SSL/HTTPS connection.

We offer both new and existing users a free 14-day trial for the Shared Workspace. See our Pricing Page for more details on the different plans.

Please note that we have updated our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to ensure the safety and privacy of your data.

If you have any questions or feedback, let us know in the comments or drop us a mail.

Best,

Johannes, Janne & Matti

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July 21, 2011
Big update coming in August

Just to update you folks. A new update we have been working for a while will come in August. Our focus has been on improving the user experience. One of the major fixes was to make navigating between different workspaces easier. Here is a look on how the workspace will be selected in future.


A new way to move between workspaces in Patternry

In addition to this, there will be a lot of smaller improvements that make Patternry easier to use. Visual improvements were an important part in this, so things should also look better.
 
There is also more to come, but we will keep you guessing for a while longer ;)

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