The document discusses software visualization as a medium for software comprehension. It covers topics like problem domains addressed by software visualization, evidence of its effectiveness, and ways to improve effectiveness. It also summarizes evaluations and strategies adopted in software visualization approaches, such as controlled experiments and case studies. Finally, it outlines ongoing and future work on software visualization in augmented reality.

1. T H E M E D I U M O F V I S U A L I Z AT I O N F O R
S O F T WA R E C O M P R E H E N S I O N
L E O N E L M E R I N O
merino@inf.unibe.ch leonel_merinoscg.unibe.ch/staff/merino
S U P E R V I S E D B Y
P R O F. D R . O S C A R N I E R S T R A S Z
S O F T WA R E C O M P O S I T I O N G R O U P ( S C G )

2. 2
• overview
• details-on-demand
• communication
• engaging
… why there is little
adoption?
V I S U A L I Z AT I O N S A R E S U I TA B L E F O R
S O F T WA R E C O M P R E H E N S I O N

3. 3
• overview
• details-on-demand
• communication
• engaging
… why there is little
adoption?
V I S U A L I Z AT I O N S A R E S U I TA B L E F O R
S O F T WA R E C O M P R E H E N S I O N

4. 4
• what are the problem domains tackled in
software visualization?
• are these domains important for practitioners?
• how visualization techniques relate to problem
domains?
• what’s the evidence of the effectiveness of
software visualization?
• how we can improve the effectiveness of
software visualization?

5. Towards Actionable Visualization for Software Developer
Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, Oscar Nierstrasz - University of Bern
Journal of Software: Evolution and Process’17

6. 6
E X T R A C T E D D ATA
e.g., lviz
e.g., maintenance
e.g., wall display
e.g., dense pixel
e.g., QA Engineer
e.g., source code

8. IconicStacked
Geometrically-Transformed Dense Pixel
8

9. 9

10. 80% Not
identified

11. 80% Not identified
10% Standard

12. 80% Not identified
4% Wall display
10% Standard

13. 80% Not identified
10% Standard
4% Wall display
2% Projection screens
2% Multi-touch tables
2% Immersive 3D environment
13

14. 14

15. D3
OpenCloud
MT4j
JFreeChart

16. OpenGL
GLUT
Globsym
wxWidgets
Extractor
D3
OpenCloud
C++
VR Juggler
Roassal
Eclipse Visualization Toolkit (Zest) wxWindows
MT4j
FTGL
FreeType
Viewer
abego TreeLayout
JFreeChart
16

17. NetBeans Visual Library.Java 8
Java
Control FX
Java3D
Java FX
C++
Graphisto ToolkitOpenJDK 1.6.0 18 (64bit)
TreeMap Java Library
GraphStream
Java 6
abego TreeLayout
yFiles library
Swing
17

18. OpenGL
NetBeans Visual Library.
GLUT
Java 8
Stencil visualization environment
Prefuse toolkit
Java
Globsym
Control FX
wxWidgets
Extractor
Java3D
D3
OpenCloud
Java FX
C++
VR Juggler
G4P
dot
Roassal
Eclipse Visualization Toolkit (Zest)
Graphisto ToolkitOpenJDK 1.6.0 18 (64bit)
wxWindows
TreeMap Java Library
GraphStream
Java 6
MT4j
GraphViz
Palantir
FTGL
FreeType
Viewer
abego TreeLayout
Trevis
yFiles library
Qt
jMonkeyEngine
JFreeChart
CCJun
Swing
18

20. 18
16
12 7
0
42 26
45
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Evaluation Design Study System Technique
Theorical Survey Case Study Experiment No Formal Evaluation
A Systematic Literature Review of Software Visualization Evaluation
Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, Craig Anslow, Oscar Nierstrasz
University of Bern - Victoria University of Wellington
Journal of Systems and Software (in review)

21. E VA L U AT I O N S T R AT E G I E S A D O P T E D I N
S O F T WA R E V I S U A L I Z AT I O N A P P R O A C H E S
21

22. E VA L U AT I O N M E T H O D S A D O P T E D I N
S O F T WA R E V I S U A L I Z AT I O N A P P R O A C H E S
22

23. VA R I A B L E S I N C L U D E D I N E VA L U AT I O N S A D O P T E D
I N S O F T WA R E V I S U A L I Z AT I O N A P P R O A C H E S
23

24. O N T H E I M PA C T O F T H E M E D I U M I N
T H E E F F E C T I V E N E S S O F 3 D
S O F T WA R E V I S U A L I Z A T I O N
24
VISSOFT’17
University of Bern, Victoria University of Wellington,
University of Konstanz
Leonel Merino, Johannes Fuchs, Michael
Blumenschein, Mohammad Ghafari,
Oscar Nierstrasz, Craig Anslow, Michael Behrisch,
Daniel Keim

25. C O N T R O L L E D E X P E R I M E N T
25

26. Freemind (600 classes) Azureus (6600 classes)
Performance
Accuracy
Finding Outliers
Finding Patterns
Location and
Quantification
Completion
Time
Finding Outliers
Finding Patterns
Location and
Quantification
User Experience
Difficulty
Finding Outliers
Finding Patterns
Location and
Quantification
Feelings
Recollection
26

27. 27

28. C I T Y V R : G A M E F U L S O F T WA R E V I S U A L I Z A T I O N
28
ICSME TD’17University of Bern, Victoria University of Wellington
Leonel Merino, Mohammad Ghafari, Craig Anslow, Oscar Nierstrasz

29. F O R M A T I V E E X P E R I M E N T
• Navigation
• Feelings
• Time
Perception

30. C A S E S T U D Y
• Navigation
• Feelings
• Time
Perception
“nice to walk” • curious
• immersed
• in control
• challenged

31. C A S E S T U D Y
• Navigation
• Feelings
• Time
Perception
“time flown very fast”

32. O N G O I N G W O R K :
S O F T WA R E V I S U A L I Z A T I O N
I N A U G M E N T E D R E A L I T Y
32

33. 33

34. 34

35. S U M M A RY
merino@inf.unibe.ch leonel_merinoscg.unibe.ch/staff/merino

36. F U T U R E W O R K
• VISON: Software Visualization Ontology
• Software Visualization Engine for Unity
• Collaborative Software Visualization in Virtual Reality
• Pervasive Visualization in Augmented Reality for Software
Monitoring