Assessment of Software Interfaces using a Usability Evaluation Based Software Model

The usability evaluation of the software interfaces is one of the prominent concepts in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). In order to increase the usability, the design of software interfaces becomes an important task for HCI experts. This paper describes a new HCI based software development approach called the Usability Evaluation based Model (UEM). The UEM consists of five processes that help Software Engineers work with HCI experts from the beginning until the deployment of the software. However, this model not only bridges the gap between the SE and HCI experts, but it also links the AI experts to make the development process more intelligent. One of the processes in the UEM is the Cognitive Analysis of the Software Interfaces (CASI). CASI is an expert system that helps designers and software developers to evaluate software prototypes in an intelligent way based on user perception and evaluation rules. This paper also presents a case study on the development of the university online classroom booking system. The system was built using the UEM. The results mentioned in this paper show that with the help of the UEM, more usability problems in the software interfaces can be detected. Hence, enhancing the usability of the software interfaces by an automated UEM is feasible. Index Term-Cognitive Science, Software Interface, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Expert System, Usability Evaluation, Usability Engineering, User Interface, Interaction User Prototyping, Human Computer Interaction, Cognitive Analysis of Software Interface .