An interaction design pattern is a general recurring solution, to a commonly occurring usability or accessibility problem in interaction design. An interaction design pattern is primarily used to capture “tried-and-true” solutions to repetitive problems of interaction design; these are solutions that are present in existing systems.

Interaction design patterns originated as an architectural concept by Christopher Alexander. Pattern and pattern languages are ways to express best practices, explain good designs and capture the experience in a way, such that it can be reused later. Interaction design patterns are used by software engineers for the actual design process as well as for passing on a design to others. The first complete set of interaction design patterns was the Common Ground pattern collection, formulated by Jennifer Tidwell. This collection led to creation of more patterns by other developers.

An interaction design pattern is made up of a set of common elements such as: Problem, Context, Principle, Solution, Working of the pattern, and finally examples.

Problems are related to the usage of the system and are primarily concerned with the user who will be using the software.

Context is the situation which gives rise to the usability problem. Principles are the pattern based on things such as consistency or error management. Solution provides the answer to the problem; though it concentrates only on the core of the problem, the designer has the freedom to use it in many ways.

Working of the pattern includes an analysis of how it may or may not affect certain characteristics of usability. Lastly examples are shown, of a successful pattern and how it can be practiced in a real life system.

Work on patterns in Human Computer Interaction has been performed by numerous people, thus the concept of interaction design patterns are referred to by several other names, such as; interaction patterns, user interface (UI) patterns, usability patterns, web design patterns, and workflow patterns. All these patterns are built on the same foundation, and are known to provide solutions to usability problems in interaction and interface design.