Toward a Refined Paradigm for Architecting Usable Systems

Abstract

Recent investigation reveals that few usability enhancements can be easily incorporated into the existing design as they are only related to the design of UI; but many of which may be prohibively expensive. A more recent perspective on the usability of software systems is that making software more usable is a lot easier to do if the high-level architecture was designed with usability in mind. Hence, software architects should ponder usability before usability professionals are brought into the project, more specifically during the elicitation of functional requirements. Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of methods and guidelines with the scope to ensure that software developing corporations consider usability requirements in their architectural design activities. This chapter addresses this need and provides a more developed approach for architecting usable systems. A non-formal exercise reveals that this proposed methodology was well-received by participants with different knowledge of usability. They found the process not too onerous as it guided them in discerning the concerns that could have a real impact on the architecture.