Christopher Alexander creates the design pattern based on his observation of architecture, urban design, and community livability. I think there is some similarity between the design pattern and interaction design.Here I am using the Slack as an example.
In #41 Work Community, Alexander suggests that workplaces must not be too scattered, nor too agglomerated, but clustered in groups of about. In the home page of Slack, we can see several groups, such as unread, channels, and direct messages. These groups are composed of different workplaces(channels) like ideas, announcements.
Alexander also mentions that the workplaces should contain a mix of jobs, such as desk jobs, craft jobs, and selling. In slack, we can see different workplaces(channels) have a different function. For example, we can post our great ideas in “ideas” channel, but in the “announcement” channel, we can only post some news.
Moreover, Alexander mentioned that there was a common square within the work community, which is similar to the home page in Slack. Common square include different channels. Users can easily jump in and out from the common square to those separate channels.
Use the slack as an example is really a good idea since we all use it. Thank you for your sharing!
Love how you show the common square of Slack, and it’s so nice to see our IxD channel!
Love the use of images to break up each feature you talk about when comparing to Christopher Alexander!
nice analysis! also I had no idea there was a super-secret slack that had all the IXD teachers.. good to now!
Great analysis of slack and the similarities from the patterns proposed by Christopher Alexander!