Seamless User Analysis with Integrated User Models in a Usability Engineering Repository

The analysis of users and their needs is one of the most important and most difficult aspects in software development. There have been many suggestions and usability engineering procedures published that are meant to clarify and consider the target users for a software product. However, all of these methods are weak in supporting the whole process of user analysis, and along the development process chain, the project team faces many problems. With our Usability Engineering Repository UsER we want to foster the practical use of a broad spectrum of usability engineering methods using a flexible approach of modular tools that are easy to handle. By explicit integration of user analysis results in all project phases we aim for continuous focus on user needs.