AN ONTOLOGICAL APPROACH TO WEB APPLICATION DESIGN USING W2000 METHODOLOGY

Abstract. Applications users claim ever more quality in the software prod-uct; that does not mean only an improved performance but also a better usability or a more efficient interaction paradigm; in other words, a better ”user experience”. The designer focus is not on the system but on the user and his applications. This point of view creates new requirements that force the designer to use structured approaches for improving the quality of the design and of the final web application as well. If we consider the web and the applications on this channel (where the ”user experience ” aspects have an important role), it’s possible to evaluate the weight of the new features in the software engineering process. The new application features don’t exactly match design methodologies, which must evolve in order to follow the new requirements. Many methodologies are introducing new primitives and structures that did not exist before. The well-known UML describing language (and its MOF metamodel) is evolving; the Jim Connallen’s Web Application Extensions for UML are an example of the need to update the language to these application trends. Supporting the UML goodness, in this paper we describe our experiences in the use of Web Application (WA) design methodology called W2000 (which uses UML) and in the use of ontology language to represent the same methodology. 1