Basic concepts for creating visual models

Abstract

This work explains the fundamental principles for simplifying and improving visual modeling. It builds on previous work presented in [1]. Sections I to II discuss software and system development, different types of techniques and modeling approaches are used. Visual modelling is suited to developing systems because these notations are understandable by different stakeholders. Visual modeling can make use of graphs. The paper structured as described: I. Introduction: Information and software systems require the use of methods and notations for proper representation. Unfortunately many users do not appreciate the need for creating suitable and aesthetically good diagrammatic notations II. Motivation and Some Background: Different modeling notations can be used to model systems. The key principles behind these notations are based on principles of tidiness, neatness, constructability and the level of detail. Different works and findings are presented. III. Problem Statement: This section presents various problems with visual modeling. In reality the use of good principles for creating the models are not necessarily identified, considered and adhered to when diagrammatic notations are used. IV. Some Possible Solutions: several key principles are used as solutions. These are: i) abstraction, ii) universality, iii) aesthetics, iv) correct sequence and v) patterns. Their importance is explained and it is indicated how these can improve and solve the overall diagrammatic modeling approach. V. A Toy Example Using A Control Flow Diagram: Models can have several characteristics and still be useful and offer good representation. VI. Discussion and Fundamental Issues: Explains the validity of the toy examples and how this can be extended to other models. Several problems still remain and these are not straightforward to solve. These issues are explained in this part. VII. Concluding Remarks: Summarizes the paper and explains other issues that can be tackled in the future. Many of the principles and ideas presented in this work can be used to improve other domains of computing and even other fields of computer engineering.