Analyzing the Architectural Support of Usability

Abstract

Since usability requirements can have an impact on software architecture, they should be considered in the software architecture design. We present the method ``Software ArchitecTure analysis of Usability Requirements realizatioN'' (SATURN) during which architects and analysts conduct well-established usability requirements engineering methods (usage context specification, walkthrough, brainstorming) before selecting relevant scenarios from a knowledge base of generic scenarios. Results of a business case study show that the method and its tools are comprehensible to usability non-experts, effective, and efficient.