This week Vicki and Geraldine discuss design pattern libraries: what they are, and how they can be used to foster greater digital resilience among consumers. 

Can online products and platforms be designed to actively help users develop positive skills and behaviours? The answer is yes, according to filmmaker and designer Sarah Drummond, who advocates the production and use of design pattern libraries.

But there are many questions when it comes to baking safety into digital products and platforms. Do we need to be more inclusive to properly recognise harms? How can designers strike the balance between safety and accessibility? And, if harms evolve with tech, how can designers prepare for the future? 

Sarah explains how design pattern libraries – collections of useful tools and features which can be copied by designers for their own digital products – can help address these questions. 

She also discusses her recent collaboration with Parent Zone – to create a pattern library prototype which specifically promotes digital resilience. To find out more about this project, email info@parentzone.org.uk.

You can listen to this episode in full, here.

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