USABILITY EVALUATION OF COMPUTATIONAL INTERFACE: A TECHNOLOGICAL PROSPECTION

The usability of computer interfaces has great impact on the acceptance and success of a software. Therefore, various solutions to support usability evaluation of interfaces have been developed. The aim of this study was to a technological prospection of softwares used to evaluating the usability of software interfaces, in order to identify countries depositors and the number of patents deposited in the last twenty years. For this, the prospection was performed by searching the patent databases of the European Patent Office (EPO), the Bank of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Bank of America Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The international classification most recurrent in this prospection was G06F (corresponding to electric digital processing). The highest number of patents has been deposited in the last 10 years. Among the biggest depositors countries are the United States and Japan.