Using a Pattern Library to Improve User Experience
Every piece of software shares similar elements. Grids, forms, buttons… No matter how specialist or niche your product, you will always utilise these standard user interface items.
It makes sense then to build a collection of pre-designed, standardised elements that you can call on whenever you need. This is called a pattern library. In this article, we’ll discuss the prime benefits of working with a pattern library when building software.
Offer a consistent experience
In an ideal world, software would be perfectly intuitive; your users would know how to use a product without having to think. In reality, there’s always going to be a learning curve. But having a pattern of design means your customers can develop a pattern of thought. And this leads to more intuitive, easy-to-use software.
A well-designed pattern library makes sure that the most common interactions stay the same throughout the unique areas of your software. These codified patterns allow your users to complete their tasks with minimal friction. Elements of your software that should remain consistent includes things such as:
Primary and secondary buttons always having the same styling
Important elements always being in the same position
A consistent layout of data
It is also common for a software company to build multiple products under the same brand. When this is the case, it is important to offer a consistent user experience throughout the product range. This allows your customers to switch easily between your different offerings whilst maintaining their instincts on how to use each one. For an example of this, take a look at HR software solutions, PayReview and PayGrade.
An added benefit of this is that it makes it easier to cross-sell existing customers to your other products. If it looks and feels familiar, then it’ll be more inviting to a user.
Focus on deeper problems
The aim of a piece of software is to ease an otherwise arduous task. This could be anything from managing a pay review to keeping track of your sales pipeline.
Software does not make these tasks easier through one particular element. Instead, it’s about the way all the elements combine and interact. The exact design of these interactions are the source of the deeper problems when designing software. And the quicker you can get to solving them, the better.
Having a pattern library allows you to get to the core of these issues straight away. You don’t need to worry about a grid’s design or a button’s styles. You’ve already set these in stone. So now you can quickly shift to the serious problem solving and have more time to work these things out. Ultimately, this leads to better software.
Here’s what Drew, our Head of Design & Delivery, has to say:
“From a design POV, working with our pattern library allows us to concern ourselves less with the general layout and branding of our apps. As a result, we can spend more time delving into the complex problems that our customers experience and prototyping solutions either as mock-ups or in code.
This means we can get potential solutions in front of our customers much quicker.”
Faster design and build times
We’ve established that a pattern library should contain designs for common software elements and interactions.
Having this means that once you’ve built up a pattern library, prototyping and designing new pages or products is much faster. You don’t have to worry how to arrange every minute interface detail. Instead, it becomes an exercise of putting together prefabricated blocks to create the screens you need.
What’s more, a well-established pattern library goes beyond being visual. The next step is to have your patterns pre-coded and accessible via an API or source code. This allows your developers to glance at your designs and instantly be able to build the pages.
Easier Maintenance
A piece of software is a living document. Even if you don’t make many functional changes to it, you will still need to keep on top of technology updates and swapping out depreciated libraries.
Pattern libraries make this job easier. If you standardise your elements, then you can rapidly make changes across multiple instances of said elements. And it becomes even simpler if your pattern library works through an API. Then you will only need to change an element in once for it to update across your entire product range.
Pattern of Thought
Pattern libraries offer us important advantages. Consistency, problem solving and more efficient processes means you can quickly get to the core of designing a brilliant piece of software. They give you time to be innovative and play with novel ideas, ultimately leading to solutions you otherwise might never have thought of.
The major disadvantage of a pattern library is the initial resources required to develop it. But as we have seen, the time, effort and stress you save in the long run far outweighs any downsides.
If you’d like to know more about how Amite uses pattern libraries to build our HR software, please get in touch.