General Discussion

I'll get it started.

I really like the Reputation patterns. However, I'm not quite sure what to do with them. Are the design patterns really only a collections of ideas? Where do I find the scripts to execute these ideas or is that not the goal of these patterns? Thanks.

They are guidelines, primarily for user experience designers, but also for system architects and business strategists. When we can usefully release code to complement patterns (generally via collaboration with the YUI library), then we are overjoyed to do so. In this case, we (a) don't have a set of convenient "reputation badge display" ui code modules to share and (B) our platform "engines" for reputation are not open or open source. Given the issues of gaming and so on related to reputation it's quite possible we would never be comfortable sharing that code.

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So, for these patterns, yes, they are a collection of ideas - issues to think about when putting together or integrating a reputation system. Other patterns in our library are more tactical.

I'd like to suggest a new pattern: UI Skinning.

This pattern should define a common set of UI "hooks" and corresponding UI elements and interaction for customizing an interface. Perhaps this pattern also includes a set of outcomes such as a micro-format and/or a XML/DTD for sharing customizations among pattern compliant implementations.

It's an interesting idea. I'm trying to see how it fits with our existing collection. It's kind of "meta" in a way but it seems like it woudl be really useful. Maybe we should confer with our YUI friends to see if they have any thoughts about how to do this right.

Is there any work being done to review mobile web design patterns? It seems like the web designs are increasingly reflecting the native app UX. Is this something that you foresee getting some attention in the library?