Social Design

04 Dec 2025

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Design Patterns as Etiquette

In everyday life, we follow many unwritten rules—saying “thank you,” waiting our turn, softening requests, not because someone forces us to, but because these shared patterns make interactions smoother. I think that Design patterns in software serve the same purpose. They are not rigid laws but social etiquette for code: reusable, time-tested ways of handling recurring situations so developers don’t have to improvise every interaction from scratch. Without them, a codebase becomes an awkward conversation where components shout over each other and nothing feels consistent. With them, systems behave in a way that we expect.

How it Applies to Me

In my final project, these etiquette like patterns quietly shape how everything works together. The navigation bar updates instantly when a user signs in because components listen respectfully for authentication changes, just as people adjust based on social cues. Our Prisma functions follow a Repository-style pattern, providing one polite, standardized way to “request data” instead of barging into the kitchen with raw SQL. These patterns make the codebase feel not just functional but civilized, a community of components interacting with the same unspoken manners that help humans navigate both worlds.