Immersive 3d visualizations for software-design prototyping and inspection

Abstract

In software design, physical CRC cards (Classes - Responsibilities - Collaborators) is a well-known method for rapid software-design prototyping, heavily relying on visualization and metaphors. The method is commonly applied with heuristics for encoding design semantics or denoting architectural relationships, such as card coloring, size variations and spatial grouping. Existing software-design tools are very weak in terms of interactivity, immersion and visualization, focusing primarily on detailed specification and documentation. We present a tool for visual prototyping of software designs based on CRC cards offering: 3d visualizations with zooming and panning, rotational inspection and 3d manipulators, with optional immersive navigation through stereoscopic views. The tool is accompanied with key encoding strategies to represent design semantics, exploiting spatial memory and visual pattern matching, emphasizing highly interactive software visualizations. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.