Analysing the impact of usability on software design

This paper analyses what implications usability has for software development, paying special attention to the impact of this quality attribute on design. In this context, the aim is twofold. On the one hand, we intend to empirically corroborate that software design and usability are really related. This would mean that this, like other quality attributes, would need to be dealt with no later than at design time to develop usable software at a reasonable cost. On the other hand, we present a possible quantification, calculated from a number of real applications, of the effect of incorporating certain usability features at design time.

[1]  Dieter K. Hammer,et al.  Performance prediction for software architectures , 2002 .

[2]  Len Bass,et al.  Achieving usability through software architecture , 2001, ICSE 2001.

[3]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction , 1998 .

[4]  Alexander L. Wolf,et al.  Acm Sigsoft Software Engineering Notes Vol 17 No 4 Foundations for the Study of Software Architecture , 2022 .

[5]  Chris F. Kemerer,et al.  A Metrics Suite for Object Oriented Design , 2015, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[6]  Barry Boehm,et al.  Characteristics of software quality , 1978 .

[7]  Jan Bosch,et al.  Architecting for usability: a survey , 2004, J. Syst. Softw..

[8]  H. Rex Hartson,et al.  Developing user interfaces: ensuring usability through product & process , 1993 .

[9]  Larry L. Constantine,et al.  Software for Use - A Practical Guide to the Models and Methods of Usage-Centered Design , 1999 .

[10]  John Edgar Tidwell,et al.  Common ground: a pattern language for human-computer interface design , 1997 .

[11]  Len Bass,et al.  Architecture-Based Development. , 1999 .

[12]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Usability engineering , 1997, The Computer Science and Engineering Handbook.

[13]  George M. Donahue.  Usability and the Bottom Line , 2001, IEEE Softw..

[14]  T.-H. Nguyen,et al.  Mapping the OO-Jacobson approach into function point analysis , 1997, Proceedings of TOOLS USA 97. International Conference on Technology of Object Oriented Systems and Languages.

[15]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Designing the user interface (2nd ed.): strategies for effective human-computer interaction , 1992 .

[16]  Tom Carey,et al.  Human-computer interaction , 1994 .

[17]  Everett N. McKay.  Developing user interfaces for Microsoft Windows , 1999 .

[18]  Dominique L. Scapin,et al.  Ergonomic criteria for evaluating the ergonomic quality of interactive systems , 1997, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[19]  Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals ( VDTs ) — Part 11 : Guidance on usability , 1998 .

[20]  Leonard J. Bass,et al.  Attribute-Based Architecture Styles , 1999, WICSA.

[21]  Leonard J. Bass,et al.  Linking usability to software architecture patterns through general scenarios , 2003, J. Syst. Softw..

[22]  Gerald L. Engel.  Program Criteria for Software Engineering Accreditation Programs , 1999, IEEE Softw..

[23]  Patty Curthoys,et al.  Developing user interfaces: Ensuring usability through product and process , 1997 .

[24]  Randolph G. Bias,et al.  Cost-Justifying Usability: An Update for the Internet Age , 2005 .

[25]  Mark Klein,et al.  Attribute-Based Architectural Styles , 1999 .

[26]  Joanna Bawa,et al.  The Politics of Usability , 1998, Practitioner Series.

[27]  Ahmed Seffah,et al.  The obstacles and myths of usability and software engineering , 2004, CACM.

[28]  Jenifer Tidwell,et al.  Designing interfaces - patterns for effective interaction design , 2019 .

[29]  Paul Heckel,et al.  The elements of friendly software design , 1984 .

[30]  Graham Greene,et al.  The Human Factor , 1978 .

[31]  Deborah J. Mayhew,et al.  The usability engineering lifecycle , 1998, CHI Conference Summary.

[32]  Lars Lundberg,et al.  Software architecture - Engineering quality attributes , 2003, J. Syst. Softw..

[33]  J. Hunter.  The human factor. , 2001, Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987).