Usability and Software Architecture

Questions? E-mail: Bonnie

A-PLUS: Architecture Pattern Language for Usability Support

A-PLUS is a tool for software architecture evaluation with respect to usability concerns. It currently presents the software responsibilities necessary to support the selection and presentation of alarms and events, user profiles, and environment configuration in the architecture of a product line, although its database could be expanded to include other usability concerns. It is used to support the review of a proposed software architecture by presenting the architect with a checklist of responsibilities. For each responsibility, the architect can specify whether the architecture already supports it, whether the architecture must be modified to support the responsibility, or whether the responsibility is irrelevant to the product being designed. The architect can also record comments to associate with the responsibility. Once the review has been completed, the architect can produce a “to-do” list of those responsibilities that require modification to the architecture or further discussion.

Download A-PLUS (zip, 540 kb)

A-PLUS is implemented in Drupal.

The zip file should expand into the following files and folders.

• README
  A txt file that contains the introduction above and a pointer to papers reporting on the development and testing of A-PLUS
• PatternLanguageFor_USAPs_28jul08.pdf
  A pdf of a MSWord file that lays out all the responsibilities for User Profile, Environment Configuration, and Alarms and Events. This is the source document used to build the database shipped with A-PLUS.
• APLUS_Installation_ Guide.pdf
  Instructions on how to install A-PLUS on your computer.
• Maintenance_Database_Document.pdf
  This document explains the structure of the database underlying A-PLUS and how it relates to the content in PatternLanguageFor_USAPs_28jul08.pdf.
• aplusevaluation (folder)
  Four files that implement the architecture evaluation part of A-PLUS in a browser
• aplusrequirements (folder)
  Two files that implement the requirements setting part of A-PLUS in a browser