Patternry – Organized Storage For Designers

Patternry is an application that’s part library, part toolbox, and part filing cabinet. The web-application gives designers and developers an easy way to store their design patterns, components, and code snippets safely in the cloud. While Patternry works great for individual designers, it works even better for groups and teams that need to share patterns and work together on projects.

When you sign up for Patternry, you get a choice: use the open UI pattern library for free or use the online pattern management and collaboration tool with colleagues for a fee. Groups will definitely want to use the latter, since the pattern management tool allows co-workers and clients to work together in private workspaces. If you’re a freelancer, you can get access to most of the tools available on Patternry without spending a dime. To build a pattern library for your team, you’ll want to start by selecting some of the ready-made patterns that are available on the Patternry site. You can also use the Pattern Editor to communicate new ideas. Just take a screenshot or wireframe of the user interface you’re working on, give it a name, and type up a summary or description. Patternry gives users access to a number of Creative Commons licensed patterns, which can then be customized and saved to your private library. When you use Patternry to collaborate on projects, you can share patterns with colleagues and comment on the patterns that other people have posted. Shared workspaces get custom URLs, so co-workers should have no trouble finding the library that you’ve set up.

Not only is Patternry a great way to save and store design patterns for later use, but it also serves as an excellent tool for designers and developers who could use a little help from their friends. The collaboration features are useful to people seeking helpful solutions on how to implement some of the designs they’ve come up with, which makes Patternry useful for educational purposes, as well.

Practical Uses:

• Keep all your design patterns organized and saved online
• Seek help from colleagues when you’re having trouble implementing a design
• Get pattern ideas that you can customize to fit your own needs
• Build a custom UI pattern library in very little time

Insider Tips:

• Public patterns can be customized and saved in private libraries
• The people who can view a library are separated into two roles, admins and users
• Non-profit organizations can get a free license from Patternry
• Patternry offers Creative Commons licensed patterns for its users

What we liked:

• People can use the Pattern Editor to create and save their own UI patterns
• Patterns are easy to find thanks to the descriptive titles and summaries
• Users can share their pattern libraries with clients
• Users with paid plans can upgrade or downgrade their service at any time

What we didn’t like:

• Individual users with Personal plans don’t get access to enhanced security features

Alternatives:

• Bounce – http://www.bounceapp.com
• Pattern Tap –http://patterntap.com
• UI-Patterns – http://ui-patterns.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Helsinki, Finland
• Founded by: Janne Lammi, Matti Varjokallio, and Johannes Hocksell
• Web site: http://patternry.com

Costs:

• Personal plan is free
• Team plan is $49/month
• Agency plan is $99/month
• Department plan is $199/month