Understanding Early Software Design

Student: Alex Baker, UC Irvine/ISR

Advisor: André van der Hoek, UC Irvine/ISR

Abstract:

Our research focuses on what we have dubbed the "early software design phase", where developers first explore the problem at hand through sketches and informal conversations. This part of the software development process can be crucial to a project's success, but has not been thoroughly studies by the research community. To help us gain an understanding of how designers work during this phase, we have developed several preliminary tools for analyzing and visualizing detailed logs of users' sketching sessions on a tool called Calico. By studying such logs, as well as videotaped sessions from controlled experiments, we hope to explain the early design process, and suggest ways to better support it.

Bio:

Alex Baker is a 5th year PhD student working with Professor Andre van der Hoek. His research focus is on software design, with a particular focus on studying software designers in action, as well as understanding software design relative to other design fields. His previous work includes co-designing Calico, a tool for supporting early software design, and he has worked on several projects in software engineering education.