Investigating the Relationship between Usability and Conceptual Gaps for Human-Centric CASE Tools

Authors:
A. Seffah;J. Rilling
Affiliations:
-;-
Venue:
HCC '01 Proceedings of the IEEE 2001 Symposia on Human Centric Computing Languages and Environments (HCC'01)
Year:
2001

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Abstract

Several interviews we conducted highlight that manyof the ease-of-use (usability) problems of CASE tools areinstances of "conceptual gaps." A conceptual gap arisesbecause of some difference between the developer'smental model of the integrated software developmentenvironment (IDE) and the way it can be used. Fillingthese gaps is the first step towards human-centric IDE. Inthis article, we begin by motivating our investigationswith a survey highlighting common usability problems inthe most popular Java IDEs. We then discuss how thedeveloper's experiences with the complicity of cognitivestudies can minimize these conceptual gaps while makingthe IDE more human-centered. We close our discussionwith recommendations for establishing a rigorousscientific investigation for filling these conceptual gaps,as well as for developing and evaluating the ease-of-useof IDEs.