Disseminating Usability Design Knowledge through Ontology-Based …

Short Description
Design Pattern Library [40], there are no links to the. individual patterns of interest. … Figure 2: An OWL description of a usability design pattern. …

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Content
Disseminating Usability Design Knowledge through
Ontology-Based Pattern Languages
Scott Henninger
Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln, Computer Science and Eng., CC 0112,
Lincoln, NE 68588-0112 USA
scotth@cse.unl.edu
Abstract. Usability patterns represent knowledge about known ways to design
graphical user interfaces that are usable and meet the needs and expectations of
users. There is currently a plethora of usability patterns published in books,
private repositories and the World-Wide Web. The dominance of pattern discovery
efforts has neglected the emerging need to organize the patterns so they
can become a proactive resource for developing interfaces. This paper presents
an approach using Semantic Web concepts that turns informal patterns into
formal representations capable of supporting systematic design methods. Preliminary
research is described that aims to turn loosely coupled pattern collections
into strongly coupled pattern languages that help organize usability
knowledge into a form that is easily and widely disseminated. This in turn can
be used to facilitate the accumulation of usability development knowledge.
1 Usability Patterns as an Interface Design Resource
The development of interactive software systems, i.e. systems with significant user
interface components, is currently faced with a dilemma. Design for usability is becoming
increasingly important to…