Pattern groups are organized by letter and by name. Each pattern group contains a collection of thematically related patterns. For example, if you wanted to improve the search feature on your Web site, you would go to Pattern Group P—Making Site Search Fast and Relevant. Or if your testing showed that customers were having problems navigating your Web site, you would consult the patterns in Pattern Group s—Making Navigation Easy.

Generally speaking, the earlier the pattern group, the earlier it should be used in the design process. Each pattern identifies related patterns in its sections on background, forces, and other patterns to consider. This network of patterns provides you with a way to quickly collect the patterns you need to complete your design. You can use the rich pattern vocabulary to articulate an almost infinite number of designs.

Here we want to give you design patterns that you and your team can start using today. With these design patterns you can design a site from scratch, redesign a section of a site, or fix a particular problem on a page. Every design still requires your creativity, intuition, and testing to make the solutions effective. Our patterns direct your creative energies to solving new problems, as opposed to reinventing the wheel.

The key here is to consider your options in context. If the goal of your site is to challenge your visitors, then many of the design patterns may not apply. But for any business or government site, the goal is to maximize your customer experience. This means that you will want to provide valuable, useful, and usable navigation structures and make it easy to find information and complete tasks successfully. For these kinds of sites, our patterns provide design solutions that work.

A gulf between a design team and the end customers is a fundamental problem inherent in Web site design, whether the Web site is for entertainment, e-commerce, community, or information purposes. To bridge this gulf, you need to focus on customer-centered design. At the heart of customer-centered design are two principles:

-Know your customers

-Keep your customers involved throughout the design and implementation process.

As you do when you're building any other relationship, you want to become intimate with the lives of your customers. This will not happen overnight. There is no secret formula. Fortunately, though, there are tried-and-true ways to learn about your customers. Before we discuss any of these techniques, let's understand what it means to know your customers. This principle really is many principles wrapped into one.