Evaluating using animation to improve understanding of sequence diagrams

Burd, E.L.; Overy, D.; Wheetman, A.

Abstract

This paper describes an experiment whereby the benefit of using animation to improve thecomprehensibility of UML sequence diagrams is assessed. The paper hypothesizes that through animation the control flow of sequence diagram will become more evident. The development a system that seeks to enable stakeholders to better interpret UML modeling behaviour is described. This system aims to provide dynamic visualization through the use ofanimation techniques. A study to evaluate the extent to which the animation of a diagram can aid its interpretation is then described. The results of the study show that the animation system did improve the comprehensibility of the sequence diagram control flow thus improving the comprehensibility when compared to the comprehensibility of a traditional static representation. Finally, this paper discusses the reasoning for these results.

Citation

Burd, E., Overy, D., & Wheetman, A. (2002, June). Evaluating using animation to improve understanding of sequence diagrams. Presented at 10th International Workshop on Program Comprehension : IWPC 2002, Paris, France

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 10th International Workshop on Program Comprehension : IWPC 2002
• Publication Date: 2002-06
• Deposit Date: Aug 25, 2006
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 1, 2010
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Pages: 107-113
• Book Title: 10th International Workshop on Program Comprehension, IWPC'02, 27-29 June 2002, Paris, France ; proceedings.
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/wpc.2002.1021329
• Keywords: UML sequence diagrams, Modeling behaviour.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1162402
• Publisher URL: http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/WPC.2002.1021329
• Additional Information: ©2002 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.