In our cluttered world, we rely on certain standards or patterns to help us understand how things work. As designers, we utilize design patterns to solve design challenges by using previous solutions that have already been tested and proven to work well.

For example, on the web, a website typically features navigation across the top, or down the lefthand side. Generally, a logo in the upper lefthand corner links to the homepage. On a door, the knob is on the unhinged side, around hand height. These patterns and standards help us to use these objects without needing to relearn them. They’re essentially cognitive shortcuts that allow us to get thru the world without being disoriented all the time.

Occasionally, however, these patterns are ignored, and the resulting artifact (be it a website, a house, or a bag of tortillas) doesn’t work as well as it should.

Enter the bag of tortillas. Last night, as I was making dinner, I opened this new bag of tortillas and went about my business:

I didn’t notice anything strange immediately. That is, until my wife got home. Upon seeing the bag of tortillas, she remarked: “Uh, why did you open it on the wrong end?” I thought that was odd, as it certainly appeared correct, opening on the top.

Upon further inspection, however, she was right. The top of the package (that I had now removed) featured this warning:

My immediate reaction was that it was printed upside down, but that’s not the case, given the “Open Below” wording. In any case, I rendered the bag unsealable, completely going against the manufacturer’s (and designer’s) intent.

So, what went wrong?

This is an excellent example of a design pattern being violated. Think of a pattern as a recommended way of solving a specific problem, in this case, how to put together tortilla packaging. This pattern would recommend the following: large product logo on the front of the packaging with an opening across the top. Clearly, the designer went against this standard, put the opening on the bottom of the package, and left the user (me) to stumble into danger.

Here’s what we can learn from this:

1. Design patterns and standards help people understand things. There are millions and millions of design problems out in the world. Everyday, we struggle to find the best way to structure something or solve a specific problem. Luckily, many of these problems have been solved well, and we should utilize those solutions when appropriate. Like putting the navigation across the top of a website, putting the opening of a product packaging across the top is a standard solution that users have come to understand. Violating this pattern without ample redesign of the entire context results in confusion.
2. Users don’t read. We’ve heard this time and again, and it continues to ring true. Even with warning text across the top of the packaging, I proceeded to mindlessly rip into it without pause. The reason? It appeared to follow a standard pattern, so instead of using up extra cognitive energy to process the text, my mind opted for checking out and moving right into opening it. Never make the mistake of thinking you can simply fix poor design with a label or instructions. Our brains will take the lazy way out.
3. Form implies function. When designing anything, the form of that object carries with it certain meaning. An item like the tortilla package carries with it all the past expectations and memories of other objects that look just like it. Because it resembles so many other packages we’ve seen before it, we assume it operates in the same way. Remember that the form of something carries with it underlying assumptions, and assure that if you change how a user interacts with it, you change the form appropriately to communicate the new interaction typology.

Design patterns and standards help us understand the world. They provide us with proven frameworks for solving common design problems, and their repeated use teaches users to expect things to work in a certain way. While being innovative is certainly desirable, recasting these patterns needs to be researched and designed carefully, so that our users aren’t left ripping things apart.

For more on design patterns for the web, check out these resources:

Yahoo Design Pattern Library
Welie Design Pattern Library