Double Helix Design Patterns
Working as a designer in various domains, from simple graphic, motion, and concept designs, to software, spatial design, even organizational design, I became more of a design generalist than a specialist.
Due to that fact I started taking notes observing common high-level common patterns that permeate different design domains. They are fundamentally people-centred, aligning with design thinking. However, they can also be applied to higher or lower level agents thus fitting with systems thinking frameworks. The patterns address both problem and solution space, two sides of the same coin.
These notes are written as my personal reminders of what designs should address, always striving to benefit broader ecosystems, not just clients and their profits. They are a continual work in progress. Other designers may or may not find them useful.
-
The Main Pattern of the Double Helix Design Patterns provides an overview of the recursive ways living things make decisions, create value, manage limited resources, interact with others, store and use learnings, and tap into their creative potential.
The following nine patterns provide more details.
Read Main Pattern >>
-
Patterns of What identify key elements designers need to be aware of in examination of the problems and solutions: agents & environments, information flows, and detectable events that manifest the agent’s behaviour.
1.1 Patterns of Systems >>
1.2 Patterns of Information >>
1.3 Patterns of Events >>
-
Patterns of How describe actions or relations between agents and their environment, how agents make decisions by balancing value creation and limited resources based on the feedback they receive from the environment, why agents engage in iterative events over the course of their value creating process, and how agents continuously develop an understanding of themselves and their environment in order to keep creating value.
2.1 Patterns of Decision Making >>
2.2 Patterns of Iterating >>
2.3 Patterns of Understanding >>
-
Patterns of Why relate to reasons behind the agent's behaviour, how the primary reason of an agents as a coherent entity is the survival in its environment, how crucial is establishing connections with elements of the environment for collaboration and co-creation, and how agents grow, develop, and potentially transcend their states of being over time.
3.1 Patterns of Surviving >>
3.2 Patterns of Connecting >>
3.3 Patterns of Becoming >>