Analysing the impact of usability on software desig

This paper analyses what implications usability has for software development, paying special attention to the impact of this quality attribute on design. In this context, the aim is twofold. On the one hand, we intend to empirically corroborate that software design and usability are really related. This would mean that this, like other quality attributes, would need to be dealt with no later than at design time to develop usable software at a reasonable cost. On the other hand, we present a possible quantification, calculated from a number of real applications, of the effect of incorporating certain usability features at design time. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.