Usability and extensibility guidelines for media asset management systems : case RadioMan® Digital Library

Abstract

Each time a new feature is introduced to a system, both its architecture and its user interface become more complex. In the continuous development cycle in particular, these extensions happen consistently. This calls for system design that is mindful of both usability and extensibility to avoid system deterioration.

This problem is tackled as a case study of the RadioMan® Digital Library (RMDL) media asset management (MAM) module, a new feature introduced to the RadioMan® radio automation system. It seeks to uncover how RMDL can be designed in a way that upholds both the usability and extensibility principles, and whether these principles intersect or are at odds with each other at any point.

The research was conducted following the design science research methodology and produced guidelines for usable and extensible design for RMDL. The guidelines were informed by a literature review and a requirements engineering process. They were then evaluated by means of qualitative appraisal reflecting on a prototype implementation of RMDL. While the guidelines informed the development of the prototype, they also helped identify further limitations during the evaluation step.

The usability and extensibility principles were both found to place importance on flexibility, efficiency, and information clarity, but with diverging goals. Heightened usability will increase system complexity, which is what extensibility heuristics want you to avoid, and the unambiguous, human-comprehensible expressions which should be used in user interfaces are a poor fit for the implementation model of the system. This thesis offers a look into the design of MAM systems and the state of the research on the topic. It also presents a link between architectural and interaction design and argues that while the architecture of a system should be invisible to the user, usability concerns should inform its design.