Examples of approaches using Pattern Languages as methodology.

Contextual Quote

What are Pattern Languages for ?

"In order to become more adept at managing human-made environments we need to get the decision making process out of our minds - use some kind of formalised representation."

"Pattern Language approaches seek to develop a formalisation mode that simultaneously meets several requirements.

We wish to be able to analyse and document complex human-made systems in a way that supports us well. The format needs to be at once loose - to avoid mechanistic reductivism - and rigorous - to tease out cognitive bias and maximise clarity. It needs to be applicable to a wide variety of cases and conditions - human-made systems operate on multiple interacting levels, from the brute mechanical to the pre-consciously emotional. It needs to be useful - easy to interact with and understand, adaptable to the specifics of circumstance, yet definitive.

Build Pattern Languages to document the recurring conditions of complex human-made environments, to develop understanding, to communicate analysis, and to support safer and wider intervention and design.

Make sure that the languages you build are engaging and open to development - that they constitute a developing and dynamic Living Language . Do what you can to encourage an understanding of the language as Social Poetry, and not any kind of meccano-like constructor set. Engage with relevant stakeholders within the domain, seek their involvment and encourage the development within that community of groups of Language Gardeners."

- Dil Green [1]

See the Graphical representation by Christopher Alexander at [2].