Design Patterns for Web Design
"A Pattern", in the original definition of architect Christopher Alexander, "describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use that solution a million of times over..."
Although since many years used in software engineering design, specific patterns for hypermedia applications are being studied now only.
[Hypermedia Design Patters Repository]
I known that Design Patterns is really broad concept that goes fairly beyond it's use just in object-oriented design or in software engineering, but I just on yesterday found (via Sova v Siti - a great czech language weblog about web design) another interesting area of design pattern's use that can be useful for work I do.
HCI (which stands for Human-Computer Interaction, where also web design falls) Design Patterns are really interesting stuff, and I recommend to check it for everyone who is somewhat involved in creating web sites (for example, but not only, with ASP.NET).
Interested? So here are few links:
Hypermedia Design Patterns Repository
A nice collection of about 28 patterns divided into three well defined groups (Interace/Layout, Structure/Navigation, Content Oriented).
Martijn van Welie: Interaction Design Patterns
Big, but well arranged, collection of more than a 50 user interaction design patterns for web, GUI, and mobile device's UI. Good resource!
Jenifer Tidwell: Common Ground -- A Pattern Language for HCI Design
That is very interesting work covering not only web user interface, but also web site's information architecture.
Mark L. Irons: Patterns for Personal Web Sites
That is way cool! Excellent collections of more than 30 design patterns for web design, such as Three Jump Maximum, Secret Garden, Visible Location, Reward Visitors, Guessable URLs , Graceful Failure. Definitely a recommended reading for everyone who is creating web sites (or thinking about creating ones).
And on end there are two web sites with loads of links to other resources related to HCI design patterns:
Jan Borcher: hcipatterns.org -- The HCI Patterns Pages
Tom Erikson: The Interaction Design Patterns Page