An organizational learning method for applying usability guidelines and patterns

Abstract

As usability knowledge and techniques continues to grow, there is an increasing need to provide tools that disseminate the accumulated wisdom of the field. Usability guidelines are one technique that is used to convey usability knowledge. Another is the emerging discipline of usability patterns. This paper presents an approach that combines these techniques in a case-based architecture and utilizes a process to help an organization capture, adapt, and refine usability resources from project experiences. The approach utilizes a rule-based tool to represent the circumstances under which a given usability resource is applicable. Characteristics of the application under development are captured and used to match usability resources to the project where they can be used to drive the design process. Design reviews are used to capture feedback and ensure that the repository remains a vital knowledge source for producing useful and usable software systems.