ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter describes patterns from several perspectives: first their historical origin as a means of communicating architectural design themes, and then as they are used in this book to describe aspects of the art of design science research. The general design cycle (GDC) is then revisited (from previous chapters), adapted specifically for use as a framework for understanding design science research projects. The chapter concludes with an extended case study of the use of patterns in the same development project — of the Smart Object Paradigm — recounted in narrative in Chapter 2.
