Towards a unified catalog of hypermedia design patterns

There has been a recent increase in the number of published design patterns for hypermedia. Some of these patterns have been evolving, while others have remained untouched. This paper attempts to list all the patterns currently known, tracing the different publications in which they have appeared. The patterns are scrutinized and refined: some patterns are unified into one; some are deemed special cases of other patterns; some patterns are renamed. At the same time, we propose to rewrite the patterns in a vocabulary that is uniform, and to use similar pattern templates. We then discuss the creation of a design patterns system, which organizes the patterns and assists the designer in the process of recognizing the problems and their potential solutions. Finally we propose a subset of the patterns which should conform a catalog of basic patterns; this catalog will attempt to address the most common problems found during the design of hypermedia applications.