Rapid visual design with semantics encoding through 3d CRC cards

ABSTRACT

Physical CRC cards (Classes -- Responsibilities - Collaborators) is a well-known method for rapid software-design prototyping. It is commonly applied with numeric heuristics to encode design semantics and denote architectural relationships through card coloring, size variations and spatial grouping. Existing CRC design tools are weak in terms of interactivity and visualization, focusing mainly on form-based specification and documentation. We present Flying Circus, a tool for rapid and exploratory software-design prototyping via CRC cards, offering facilities such as: interactive 3d visualizations with zooming, panning and rotational design inspection, 3d card manipulators, and immersive navigation via stereoscopic views. Our tool is accompanied with specific encoding strategies to represent design semantics and exploit spatial memory and visual pattern matching, while emphasizing highly interactive software-design visualizations.

REFERENCES

• 1: QUICK CRC. 2001. http://www.excelsoftware.com/crccards.html
• 2: K. Beck , W. Cunningham, A laboratory for teaching object oriented thinking, Conference proceedings on Object-oriented programming systems, languages and applications, p.1-6, October 02-06, 1989, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
• 3: H. Byelas , A. Telea, Visualization of areas of interest in software architecture diagrams, Proceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on Software visualization, September 04-05, 2006, Brighton, United Kingdom [doi>10.1145/1148493.1148509]
• 4: Alexander Fronk , Armin Bruckhoff , Michael Kern, 3D visualisation of code structures in Java software systems, Proceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on Software visualization, September 04-05, 2006, Brighton, United Kingdom [doi>10.1145/1148493.1148515]
• 5: Orla Greevy , Michele Lanza , Christoph Wysseier, Visualizing live software systems in 3D, Proceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on Software visualization, September 04-05, 2006, Brighton, United Kingdom [doi>10.1145/1148493.1148501]
• 6: Chris Parnin , Carsten Görg, Lightweight visualizations for inspecting code smells, Proceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on Software visualization, September 04-05, 2006, Brighton, United Kingdom [doi>10.1145/1148493.1148529]
• 7: Assaf Raman , Shmuel Tyszberowicz, The EasyCRC Tool, Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering Advances, p.52, August 25-31, 2007 [doi>10.1109/ICSEA.2007.72]
• 8: Roach, S., Vasquez, J. 2004. A tool to support the crc design method. International Conference on Engineering Education, http://www.succeed.ufl.edu/icee/Papers/339_Roach-Vasquez_(1).pdf.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.6 Programming Environments

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)

  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

General Terms:
Design

Keywords:
rapid prototyping, visual design encoding, visual software design