Interactive design and design strategy firm ZURB today announced that it has acquired Pattern Tap, “a place where designers can find inspiration and study patterns of user interaction.” ZURB, which has released many of its internally developed apps for designers over the last few years (including Twitter Bootstrap competitor Foundation), plans to integrate Pattern Tap into ZURBexpo, its content-focused property that it uses to showcase its own blog posts, demos and other content it produces in-house. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Pattern Tap focuses on crowdsourcing ideas and also offers a large design database. Users can upload their designs (or interesting designs they find on the Web), tag them and discuss them with fellow Pattern Tap users. ZURB plans to add more features and continue to support the Pattern Tap community. ZURB says it wants to make the site “an authoritative, go-to hub for designers, developers and business types looking to expand their design chops and increase design education amongst all.” According to its own data, Pattern Tap currently has about 25,000 registered users.
Pattern Tap was originally developed by Matthew Smith and launched three years ago. Smith is currently the Creative Director at peer-to-peer marketplace Zaarly. It’s important to note then, that this is not a talent acquisition. ZURB is just acquiring the property itself. Smith, however, says that he will continue to remain an active contributor to the site. “[Pattern Tap] is a real educational space where people can grow and learn,” said Smith. “I’m excited to continue to be a part of it. As someone involved in many aspects of the digital industry, I love to see it flourish. It’s a great opportunity to see an app I started take a new journey.”
