Patterns for Personal Web Sites

Introduction to Patterns for Personal Web Sites

There are many personal Web sites. The vast majority are mediocre. Some are bad. Fewer are good. An extremely small number are excellent.

These excellent sites -- and I use "excellent" subjectively -- fascinate me. Why is finding a new one such a delight? What distinguishes them from the rest? What unnamable yet instantly recognizable quality do they possess?

This is my attempt to answer some of these questions. My method is to distill the qualities of the best personal Web sites (and my own) into a set of patterns. These patterns can be used as guidelines for creating a personal Web site.

Who are these patterns for?

These patterns are for people who want to create a personal Web site that:

These patterns are not for people who want to create:

The intended audience is people who have a working knowledge of HTML and Web site design.

Some things these patterns aren't

This is not a discussion of what patterns are. If you're interested in patterns, there are better descriptions available than anything I could write. Likewise, this is not an HTML or Web site design primer.

This collection of patterns is not a finished work. As patterns make themselves known, they'll be included. Here are some that are under consideration.

This is not a pattern language in Christopher Alexander's sense of the term. I truly wish it were; it would please me greatly to present a complete pattern language, rather than the work in progress these patterns represent. With a few more years' work these patterns may complete their transformation into a pattern language, but as I write they are missing several important components:

These patterns are not consistent. For example, the patterns Three Jump Maximum and Index Pages have different aims than Secret Garden. Yet each was important enough to include, despite their contradictions taken together.

Many of these patterns are not for everyone. This set of patterns has guided the growth of my site over the last seven years; your site undoubtedly has a different, though overlapping, set of patterns.

What you get out of these patterns is up to you. You can choose to adopt all, some, or none of them. Even if you adopt none, simply reading the patterns may give you ideas for improving your site.

The Patterns

The patterns are grouped by type:
  1. Content patterns focus on what a site offers.
  2. Structural patterns describe three levels of organization: the site, individual pages, and links.
  3. Temporal patterns influence how a site changes over time.
  4. Navigation patterns simplify navigation.
  5. Technology patterns use technology to improve a site's usability.

Since content is critical to creating a good site, the best starting point is the first content pattern, Reward Visitors.

Acknowledgements

The idea for creating a set of patterns for personal Web sites gestated for at least seven years, starting when a friend mentioned the pattern that became Private Entrance. Since then, many people have influenced my thoughts on Web site patterns, including:

Other formats

These pages are available as a Downloadable Weblet for offline use. The archive file (zip format) is 94K.

Comments are welcome

If these patterns help you, or you take exception to them, please let me know. I consider these patterns a work in progress, and am interested in your comments.


Last updated 23 June 2002
http://www.rdrop.com/~half/Creations/Writings/Web.patterns/introduction.html
All contents ©2002 Mark L. Irons