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CanonSketch and TaskSketch: Innovative Modeling Tools for Usage-Centered Software Design

Demonstration number: 1

Two closely related novel tools support model-based design and development by addressing major areas of weakness in current modeling tools. CanonSketch is the first tool to support abstract user interface prototyping using canonical abstract components. Canonical abstract prototypes serve as an intermediary between task and object models on the one hand and working user interface prototypes on the other. They have proved to be effective in promoting innovative visual and interaction designs that better support user performance. The tool enables rapid modeling and prototyping through three synchronized views at different levels of abstraction: UML class model, canonical abstract prototype, and functioning HTML prototype. TaskSketch is an interactive requirements elicitation and modeling tool focused on linking and tracing use cases. It supports collaborative modeling by multiple stakeholders, including clients, marketing staff, and software engineers. It is unique in facilitating the development and exploration of the conceptual architecture based on use case narratives developed in essential form. It enables tracing the requirements of a system, in terms of user intentions and system responsibilities, to the conceptual architecture of that same system, making it easy to extract that architecture from task flows and to prioritize development of the most important classes. These prototype tools were developed in Objective-C for Mac OS X using object-oriented software engineering techniques such as the Model-View-Controller pattern. Both tools employ industry standard object modeling notation (UML) and compatible extensions and integrate with standard tool suites through XMI export. KEYWORDS: abstract prototypes, essential use cases, collaborative modeling, model-based design, usage-centered design, UML, XMI