CN05: Avoiding "We can't change THAT!":
An Introduction to
Usability and Software Architecture
Monday, 6 April 2009, 11:30
2 units
Instructors
Bonnie E. John, Carnegie Mellon University
Len Bass, Carnegie Mellon University
Elspeth Golden, Carnegie Mellon University
Benefits
Participants in this course will
- Understand basic principles of software architecture for interactive systems
and their relationship to the usability of those systems
- Be able to evaluate whether common usability scenarios will arise in the
systems they are developing so that the impact arising from these concerns
can be considered at architecture design time.
- Understand patterns of software architecture that facilitate usability
- Be able to recognize architectural decisions that preclude usability of the
end-product, so that they can effectively bring usability considerations into
early architectural design.
Origins
This is a new version of courses at CHI'02,'03, '04, '07,’08 and ICSE '04. CHI
2009 will include new examples and documented experiences using this
technique in a large multi-national company.
Features
- An introduction to software architecture, its concepts, and purposes
- The role of software architecture in the software lifecycle and how that
interacts with typical usability roles
- Quality attributes in general and usability as a quality attribute
- An introduction to usability-supporting architectural patterns (USAPs) and
their role in software architecture design.
- Detailed examples of the USAPs and their use in real-world system
construction
- Results of a controlled experiment validating the benefit of using USAPs in
architecture design
- Small group exercise applying USAPs to the attendees' specific design
situations
Audience
Usability professionals desiring more involvement with early software
decisions. Software developers who want to understand the usability
implications of architectural decisions. No prior knowledge of software
architecture is required.
Presentation
Lecture, Q&A, and small group exercise
Instructors' background
Bonnie John, a psychologist & engineer, has 20 years experience teaching
HCI. Len Bass is the author of three books on software architecture &
developing user interfaces. Elspeth Golden is a graduate student in the Human
Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon studying the intersection of
HCI and software engineering.
Website: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~bej/usa/