Patterns communicate insights into design problems, capturing the essence of the problems and their solutions in a compact form. They describe the problem in depth, the rationale for the solution, how to apply the solution, and some of the trade-offs in applying the solution.

Likewise, Web design patterns make up a language that you can use in your daily work. In fact, though you may not know it, you may already be using some form of pattern language to articulate and communicate your designs. The patterns might reflect your own experiences using the Web. You might have picked them up from another site. They could even come from an insight you learned from a successful design you developed in the past.

Our Web design pattern language focuses on your customers and their needs.

Many of our patterns reflect how your customers understand and interact with Web sites. When people go online, they do not start with a blank slate. They take with them all of their experiences, their know-how, and their understanding of how the world works. By now they recognize common signposts such as blue links and buttons, and well-known processes such as sign-in and shopping cart checkouts, as powerful ways of making any single site easy to use.

Some patterns reflect abstract qualities that make great Web sites—qualities such as value, trust, and reliability. You will integrate traits like these into the design of the entire Web site, and reaffirm and reinforce them at every point of contact with your customers. These patterns describe the essence of these abstract qualities and how they can be incorporated into the whole Web site.

Let's start with a pattern that may already be familiar to you: ACTION BUTTONS. These buttons solve a common problem that customers encounter on Web sites: knowing what can and cannot be clicked on. By adding shading to an otherwise flat button, you make it easier for people to find your links. This visual illusion works because it takes advantage of what people already know about physical buttons.

Graphical user interfaces have become another form of transferable knowledge. People who use computers learn that they can press on buttons with their mouse. This becomes a learned behavior that can be transferred to how people perceive and interact with Web sites.

Buttons in modern graphical user interfaces appear three-dimensional, to make them look as if you can press on them. You can take advantage of this knowledge by making the most important buttons on your Web site look three-dimensional too.