I'm attempting to apply them to the fields of HCI and Organizational Learning. Tom Erickson and I held a workshop on the application of Pattern Language to Human Computer Interaction at CHI '97 in Atlanta. Comments are welcome. The samples below are merely meant to be illustrative of a possible direction. Any actual pattern would be much more completely explained and have links to other related patterns.
People inevitably get confused in attempting to use systems.
If you don't save any state information, the user may have to redo work. Further, people taking actions at the edges will be more motivated than if the actions are dictated from above. Therefore, push for decisions to made as peripherally as possible but make sure that everyone knows the overall strategy and that widespread communication is maintained throughout the organization. Alexander, C. A., Ishikawa, S., Silverstein, M., Jacobson, M. Fiksdahl-King, I., and Angel, S. A Pattern Language. Oxford Press, 1977.