Implementing Frontend Architecture with a Usability Approach
Samuli Virtanen · UTUPub (University of Turku) · 2020
Modern web applications are often complex software systems offering a large set of features. To provide these features to the user, the system requires a layer of interaction – the user interface. The user interface is part of the frontend of a system. In context of web applications frontend refers to the client side of the system, which is the part of the system that is executed in user’s browser. Large systems means large amount of frontend components, which sets challenges to frontend developers work: how to maintain the quality and consistency of system’s frontend while the system grows and more developers are involved? A key quality component of a software system is usability. Usability determines how easy and pleasant a software is to use. Usability of a system can be improved by focusing on the frontend of a system, because most interactions between the user and the system are determined in the frontend of the system. This thesis researches a way to standardize frontend development in a way that good usability emerges from these standards. As a solution for this this, the thesis proposes the concept of a frontend architecture, a cohesive set of fundamental structures and patterns in digital product’s frontend. As a case study a model of a frontend architecture is constructed for a modern web application Tehden. The constructed architecture is then tested by applying the patterns to a user interface of a single feature in Tehden, and surveying different stakeholders of the system by perceived improvements in usability and development work. The case study found out that a frontend architecture is expected to improve the usability of the system while making frontend developer’s workflow easier and more efficient.