Externalizing Thought: Improving the design of software through diagrams

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Designs of experts are better than those of novices, but it is not clear why. Here, we provide new methods for understanding software design expertise and how it develops. The methods, which involve analyzing diagrams to reveal the cognitive structures of designers, have been developed in other disciplines that rely on sketches and visualizations to realize and fine-tune design. They have not yet been applied to the design of software-intensive systems. A unique and valuable aspect of the project is that it is embedded in a course in design, an opportunity to study design as it happens and to improve design instruction at the same time. The project will also study expert designers practicing in the field. Our efforts focus on the following broad research questions: What differentiates expert software designers from novices? How do experts and novices represent problems and solutions? Which teaching techniques are most successful in increasing the skills of novices? And, most generally, how can we improve our capacity to design? Bad design, and the resulting bad software, impedes coordination in many government and corporate institutions. Any improvement in the education of designers may be amplified by their efforts in practice and in mentoring other designers over the length of their careers. Specific impacts should include improving software-intensive systems design education, consequently improving the efficacy of software and social systems created by graduates of this and other design programs. For this reason, possible impacts include better homeland security, better economic growth, better social services, and other effects of improved systems design. Thus, insights in this domain may help us improve a broad range of human activities.