Design Pattern Selector

When to Use

You've encountered a concrete object-oriented design problem and need a proven structural solution. This skill is appropriate when:

You're designing a new component and want to get the structure right before writing code
Existing code has a design smell — tightly coupled classes, a proliferating subclass hierarchy, or brittle object creation — and you want a pattern to address it
You know roughly what you want (e.g., "something like a factory") but need to pick the right variant or confirm it fits
You're reviewing someone else's code and want to identify what pattern(s) would improve it
You want to understand trade-offs between two candidate patterns before committing

Before starting, verify:

Do you have a description of the design problem, even informally? (Ask the user if not)
Are you working with object-oriented design? (These patterns are OO-specific — they assume classes, objects, and inheritance)
Is this about pattern selection (this skill) or pattern implementation? If the user already knows which pattern they want, move directly to the application process in Step 6