Automated Generation of an On-Line Guidelines Repository

Involving User Interface (UI) guidelines is one possible way to improve usability of interactive applications either at design/programming time or at evaluation time. At design time, they can provide designers with some assistance by helping them to orient design options to obtain UIs which are more usable, more adapted, tailored to contextual needs (i.e., user population needs, physical environment constraints, and task needs). Guidelines can also serve as requirements to be achieved by developers at programming time. At evaluation time, a new UI or a previously designed one can be submitted to guidelines checking to guarantee a minimal threshold of usability.