ABSTRACT
Aspects and usage indicators of usability are described in the “upper” core concept ontologies, and concepts related to them are structured in two general partitions, one regarding the essential interest foucs of usability, i.e. human-system interactions and the other regarding activities, methods, and tools that are shown in the left and right parts of Figure 1, respectively). In consequence, concepts describing physical facts about the interaction are separated from normative constructs about evaluating or designing-for-usability. The former include the application domain describing the structure of the software-hardware application or system, the constructs describing human users, their profiles and perceptual traits, and their purposeful interactions or tasks, consisting ultimately of actions carried out by the users on the “affordances” provided by the system. The latter includes norms and advice for the design of user interfaces, and also methods, techniques, and interpretations of the way to evaluate and improve those designs, as a part of a usability-oriented software development process or cycle. The application domain describes the conceptual and physical structure of the user interface, and the human domain describes the users and their abilities and cognitive processes. The task domain models
Elena García-Barriocanal Computer Science Department, University of Alcalá, Ctra. Barcelona km. 33.600, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
the dialogue and interaction between humans and systems, at different levels of detail. The application domain is of special interest in some cases, e.g. when considering mobile devices, due to the heterogeneity of their features that require specific studies. The FIPA* ontology provides a foundation for that kind of specific domain. Design and evaluation are two interrelated activities that serve the purpose of making more “usable” interactions.
