Achieving Usability Through Software Architecture
7
Cross-Referencing Benefits and Mechanisms
In this chapter, we present a matrix (Figure 18) that puts the mechanism
hierarchy on one axis and the benefit hierarchy on the other. Each cell
contains the general usability scenarios that correspond to the mechanism and
benefit hierarchies. On the one hand, this matrix reproduces the
information presented in Section 4 and Section 6. On the other, the matrix provides
additional benefits. The software design team can decide which usability
benefits are most valued in a particular project, use the matrix to focus on
the general scenarios providing those benefits to see which are applicable to
the project, and then read off the architectural mechanisms necessary to
implement those scenarios. The team can use this information to generate the
architecture or to evaluate an existing architecture to see what usability
risks might be inherent in their design. Alternatively, the team could look at
the mechanisms included in a current system design and use the matrix to
discover which general usability scenarios could be implemented using those
mechanisms, and which additional usability scenarios could be addressed with
only small changes to the architecture. We expect this matrix to be the
vehicle for referencing the work presented here and thereby increase its
utility beyond the linear format of prose and diagrams.
Figure 18: Benefit and Mechanism Matrix
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[Title Page]
[Abstract]
[Figures]