Material Library, Sustainability and Usability – exploring their interrelationships

Abstract

Bearing in mind the importance of material libraries for Design, Architecture and Engineering projects, this article explores aims to explore characteristics and configurations so that they can be a resource for efficient performance, starting from the academic context. Here, we delved deeper into related sustainability concepts and, particularly, we addressed usability aspects. The development relied on the investigation and experimentation of existing material libraries and their evaluation taking Jakob Nielsen´s usability heuristics as a reference, also supported by bibliographic research and interviews. This experience allowed identifying characteristics, requirements and strategies for the composition of a material library that is robust, sustainable in its context and contents, with the constitution of a network of actors, important to achieve this objective.