Improving Readability of Software Model with Adding Visualized Extra Information to UML Diagram
Reyhaneh Raissi · 2017
This paper basically focuses on improving readability of software models. The goal of this research is the enhancement of readability and usability of UML diagrams which increases the interaction between users, programmers and software. UML generally focuses on the main aspect of the software, putting aside other concerns or "useful information" and only tries to display specific aspect at a certain time. Although, specific representation simplifies the understandability of whole diagram, removes useful contextual information. We demonstrate how to represent contextual information by visualizing "useful information" in UML diagrams. These diagrams are created from Java code using reverse engineering plug-in. This goal is achieved by adding extra information to diagram elements in form of different visual variables (such as color, brightness, text and border decoration, etc.). "Useful information" could be any obtained information during the software proceeding. Useful information and its relevant visual variables have been mapped to Java annotations, and this visualized information has been added to diagram. Embedding the "useful information" as Java annotations was done by means of Java language. Afterward, representing and visualizing contextual information in UML diagrams was conducted by JavaScript.