Analyzing the Architectural Support of Usability

Since usability requirements can have an impact on software architecture, they should be considered in the software architecture design. We present the method "Software ArchitecTure analysis of Usability Requirements realizatioN'' (SATURN) during which architects and analysts conduct well-established usability requirements engineering methods (usage context specification, walkthrough, brainstorming) before selecting relevant scenarios from a knowledge base of generic scenarios. Results of a business case study show that the method and its tools are comprehensible to usability non-experts, effective, and efficient.