The WPU Project

The Web Portal Usability (WPU) project focuses on usability in the development of modern web portals. Web portals are a key part of software development. They are created to provide a group of users with access to a collection of internet services. State-of-the-art methods for usability engineering have only had very limited influence on development of web portals. The methods are costly to apply, they take a considerable amount of time, and they require a system that is nearly completed. This implies that the methods are rarely applied. When they are, usability problems are detected late in the course of the project, when there is neither time nor financial possibilities for solving the problems.

The objective of the WPU project is to develop new methods for usability engineering in the development of web portals and to test these methods in companies that develop modern web portals. The result is a catalogue of methods that support usability engineering in web portal development, combined with guidelines for use, training programmes and documented experience from deployment and use of the methods. The WPU project is a collaborative effort between researchers from Aalborg University, Department of Computer Science and two software organizations that develop web portals.