Evaluating Usability-Supporting Architecture Patterns: Reactions From Usability Professionals

Abstract

Usability professionals and software engineers typically approach software design differently; driven by a similar goal to create usable software products yet advocating distinct design methodologies. This distinction often creates a communication gap that hinders effective usability design discussions. A potential way to bridge this gap is to leverage Usability-Supporting Architecture Patterns. Recent studies suggest that they enable software engineers to include usability considerations in the architecture of software systems. A better understanding of what the usability community thinks about these patterns can lead to their improvement as well as increased adoption by software engineers, hence more effectively integrating usability into software design. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how usability professionals react to these patterns via an online pretest-posttest control group design experiment, where participants answered questions about the patterns based on prior software design experience. Participants verified there is a communication gap with software engineers, and that Usability- Supporting Architecture Patterns are perceived as useful to account for usability in software architectures. Results suggest that participants recognize the patterns’ usability benefits as important and that the presentation of these usability benefits could be improved by using language more familiar to usability professionals.