Communications of the ACM
Why looking isn't always seeing: readership skills and graphical programming
Communications of the ACM
Cognitive Science Approaches To UnderstandingDiagrammatic Representations
Artificial Intelligence Review
Design Rationale Systems: Understanding the Issues
IEEE Expert: Intelligent Systems and Their Applications
Object-oriented modeling with ADORA
Information Systems - The 13th international conference on advanced information systems engineering (CAiSE*01)
Evaluating the Intelligibility of Diagrammatic Languages Used in the Specification of Software
Diagrams '00 Proceedings of the First International Conference on Theory and Application of Diagrams
Using ontology to validate conceptual models
Communications of the ACM - Service-oriented computing
Semiology of graphics
Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information
A Mathematical Theory of Communication
A Mathematical Theory of Communication
Communications of the ACM - Two decades of the language-action perspective
Toward a formal research framework for ontological analyses
Advanced Engineering Informatics
The untrained eye: how languages for software specification support understanding in untrained users
Human-Computer Interaction
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Analysing the cognitive effectiveness of the BPMN 2.0 visual notation
SLE'10 Proceedings of the Third international conference on Software language engineering
Random thoughts on multi-level conceptual modelling
The evolution of conceptual modeling
A cognitive perspective on developer comprehension of software design documentation
Proceedings of the 29th ACM international conference on Design of communication
Standards harmonization: theory and practice
Software and Systems Modeling (SoSyM)
An ontology for enterprise and information systems modelling
Applied Ontology
An ontology for enterprise and information systems modelling
Applied Ontology
Visualizing normative systems: an abstract approach
DEON'12 Proceedings of the 11th international conference on Deontic Logic in Computer Science
On the Usage of Labels and Icons in Business Process Modeling
International Journal of Information System Modeling and Design
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UML is a visual language. However surprisingly, there has been very little attention in either research or practice to the visual notations used in UML . Both academic analyses and official revisions to the standard have focused almost exclusively on semantic issues, with little debate about the visual syntax. We believe this is a major oversight and that as a result, UML 's visual development is lagging behind its semantic development. The lack of attention to visual aspects is surprising given that the form of visual representations is known to have an equal if not greater effect on understanding and problem solving performance than their content. The UML visual notations were developed in a bottom-up manner, by reusing and synthesising existing notations, with choice of graphical conventions based on expert consensus. We argue that this is an inappropriate basis for making visual representation decisions and they should be based on theory and empirical evidence about cognitive effectiveness. This paper evaluates the visual syntax of UML using a set of evidence-based principles for designing cognitively effective visual notations. The analysis reveals some serious design flaws in the UML visual notations together with practical recommendations for fixing them.