This page is likely to change often as we post new ideas or insights.

"What is Usage Architecture and how does it relate to Solution Architecture?" is a description of the four Cs of Usage Architecture, which are particularly important in the Solution Achitecture functional view

"What is Usage-Centered Solution Architecture and Engineering?" is a one-page introduction to the usage-centered concepts.

"What is Solution Architecture? Who are Solution Architects?" is a two-page overview of typical solution architecture and roles as practiced in larger enterprises.

"Are “Usage-Centered” and “Usable” Really the Same Thing?" examines the differences between the usage-centered technology perspective and traditional usability practice.

Our white paper entitled "Winning Business with Usage-Centered Technology" is available for download by providing us with a valid email address. A companion document, "Case Retrospective: Portable Customizable Sound" is also available for download.

You can download our PowerPoint show (PPS) from Usability and User Experience 2008, UPA-Boston's Seventh Annual Mini UPA Conference, 4/28/08 entitled, "Moving up the Usability Food Chain: A Cross-Disciplinary Holistic Viewpoint." The PPS file is about 700KB. The handouts in PDF form () are also available for printing (about 400KB).

You can download our PowerPoint show (PPS) from the UPA-Boston 4th Mini-UPA conference 3/3/05 entitled, "How Devices Shift Usage Paradigms-Expectations in a Converging Technology Arena." The PPS file is about 4.4MB. A PDF version () of the file is also available for printing (about 3.5MB). However, the PPS file provides PDA animations that are very useful in understanding how the interface actually works.

Short explanation of: (click icon).

See Time Affordances: the time factor in diagnostic usability heuristics presented at the CHI '95 Conference (Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems). Note: this version has the correct Figure 1; the ACM online version includes Figure 3 twice. Here is a PDF version of the CHI '95 slides with notes that provide some additional insights. Although the figures are from early Microsoft Windows, the concepts are still pertinent (and often ignored) today.

We took the perceived affordances concept further in a 1998 paper entitled, Diagnostic Affordances: Heuristics for Enhancing Interface Information (pdf version)

Watch this space for more documents periodically.

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