Title :
Work in progress - introducing usability concepts in early phases of software development
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Comput. & Inf. Syst., Grand Valley State Univ., Allendale, MI
Abstract :
Usability is critical for the success of interactive software systems. However, usability evaluation is rarely taught as an indispensable element of the development process in software design courses. On analyzing usability errors students made in their programming projects, we found some usability errors, although revealed via the visual design of a user interface, resulting from earlier design decisions. It is beneficial to introduce usability concepts in early phases of software development. In this paper, we present an approach to integrating usability evaluation into behavioral modeling for interactive systems. Early usability evaluation is intended to help students obtain a better understanding on usability and encourage them to make conscious effort in seeking usability throughout the development process
Keywords :
computer science education; graphical user interfaces; interactive programming; interactive systems; software engineering; behavioral modeling; interactive software systems; software design course development process; usability concepts; usability error analysis; user interface visual design; Computer science education; Error analysis; Human computer interaction; Information systems; Interactive systems; Programming profession; Software design; Software systems; Usability; User interfaces; Computer Science Education; Human-Computer Interaction; Software Design; Usability Evaluation;
Conference_Titel :
Frontiers in Education, 2005. FIE '05. Proceedings 35th Annual Conference
Conference_Location :
Indianopolis, IN
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-9077-6
DOI :
10.1109/FIE.2005.1611963