Design and implementation of an eclipse plug-in for pattern exploration and application

In Software engineering a design pattern is a general repeatable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design. An Interaction design pattern is a general repeatable solution to a commonly occurring usability or accessibility problem in interface or interaction design. Usage of patterns brings benefits to the software development process. Usually this activity is supported through Tools. At the moment there is no tool that provides support for storing and disseminating usability patterns in a common format and makes these patterns available to different Personas. The aim of this thesis is to develop an Eclipse plug-in that would support storage of usability patterns in a common format and make these patterns available to different personas in views relevant to them. Software engineering process usually involves personas such as Researchers who would research and discover new patterns or techniques for use, Designers who would use these patterns or techniques and incorporate them into their software design, Software developers who would then use these patterns or techniques in their implementation. This thesis document contains a detailed analysis about the goals, activities and requirements for each of these personas. The document also presents a state of the art analysis of the existing approaches and tools available for design patterns. A pattern template has been developed in the light of the analysis and survey. The rest of the thesis describes the UI concepts and design, analysis of the technologies with respect to the specification and implementation details. This would be eventually followed by evaluation of tool.