Usability Analysis of the Channel Application Programming Interface

The Channel Application Programming Interface (API) provides a tool for loosely coupling components in Component Based Design (CBD) projects In the thesis that proposed and developed the API, the author provided a technical analysis of the API's performance with respect to communication metrics However, only the author/designer has ever used the API; hence, no analysis was accomplished with respect to usability attributes, The project sponsor desires public release of the API, especially within the Department of Defense (DoD) however, a usability analysis is first required to ensure wide acceptance and use of the API, In order to analyze the API, an analysis method and associated metrics are required, Little work has been done in the field of Human Computer Interface (HCI) with respect to treating an API as an interface and programmers as the end users, This thesis follows an IEEE published case-study and well known HCI usability analysis methods to test the API for general usability attributes as well as to investigate specific features of the API, Specifically, the analysis will test the API's ability to explain its functionality during first time exposure, The API's acceptance will depend on its success or failure to convey its purpose quickly during this initial exposure, The results from testing the API are used to determine required enhancements to the API and its documentation.Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA Dept of Computer Science is the author of 'Usability Analysis of the Channel Application Programming Interface', published 2003 under ISBN 9781423512752 and ISBN 1423512758.