Design patterns document in a systematic way design solutions to recurrent problems and they are expressed using non-technical terms, so that a wider audience can understand them. Thus they could be useful tools to improve communication in interdisciplinary teams and to integrate end-users in participatory design processes. However, the difficulties of using patterns go beyond the lexicon used in the patterns description. The individuals who might use the patterns may be following different strategies when browsing a collection of patterns, strategies that are determined by their goal at a specific point during the development process. Moreover, the strategy they follow can have some influence in the quality of the proposed solution.