Pattern-Based Tool Design for Shared Knowledge Construction - Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design - page 25

Figure 1. Layers in the pattern language for computer-mediated interaction

• High-level patterns describe issues and so-

lutions typically targeted at end-users.

cording to the patterns' most important forces.
Figure 1 shows the different clusters of our lan-
guage as shaded boxes. The top level clusters, i.e.
from Arrive in the community to Protect users ,
address issues at a community level and contain
high-level patterns. The clusters in the middle
layer, i.e. from Modify shared artifacts together
to Asynchronous awar eness, address issues on a
group level and contain a mixture of high-level
and low-level patterns. Finally, the clusters on the
lower levels address technical issues and contain
low-level patterns. The white boxes represent
complementary pattern languages.

• Low-level patterns describe issues and so-

lutions typically targeted at software de-
velopers on a more technical level.

Both low-level and high-level patterns can be
positioned on a seamless abstraction scale. The
more a pattern discusses technical issues; the
lower is its level. Low-level patterns deal with
class structures, control flow, or network com-
munication. High-level patterns focus on human
interaction and address computer systems just as
tools to support the human interaction. In the ex-
treme, high-level patterns would describe how the
end-user can compose off-the-shelf components
and embed them in his work process. This would
then mean that the software developer would no
longer need to assist the end-user in implement-
ing the pattern.
In the pattern language for computer-mediated
interaction (Schümmer & Lukosch, 2007a), we
identified 11 clusters that group our patterns ac-

oregon software
development Process

The main reason for us to require patterns on
different levels of abstraction is based in the in-
tended use of the patterns in the Oregon Software
Development Process (OSDP) (Schümmer et al.,
2006). This process fosters end-user involvement
by means of socio-technical patterns. End-users