Chris Ford — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:55 GMT

Hello Meg -

Great article.

I wonder where you see the connection between these ‘guiding principles’ and design behaviours and patterns? Our recent work has involved defining three layers of interaction design: The system model (describing the relationship between the users’ model of the system, the audience’s expectations and requirements, the project objectives and the client’s brand position), design behaviours (very similar to your guiding principles: strongly influenced by the brand position) and design patterns (recording our understanding of best-practice interactions – a high level of detail).

We’re finding that this level of ‘granularity’ in defining how the system should present interactions to the user extremely helpful, especially for large-scale systems. We’re also finding that the process of defining these three ‘levels’ allows us to involve different project teams/disciplines in the design process, sharing a common set of objectives and – as importantly – a common language.

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Chris Ford