Development and Usability Evaluationof Visualized architecture(GUI) - A case study

Abstract: Background: Working with complex software architectures involves several challenges(hard to comprehend, time-consuming), and that is where visualization comesinto place. Visualizing the architecture allows the stakeholders to comprehend andcommunicate with the software architecture of complex systems. After visualizing,it is important to validate the claims that are put forward with valid proof. Evaluating/validating the visualized architecture is performed to get insights into howeffective and efficient is the visualized architecture. Objectives: This study aims to visualize the architecture, provide it with aGraphical User Interface according to the user queries and evaluate the usability ofthe visualized architecture. Methods: In this research, a case study has been conducted at Ericsson to answer the three research questions to fulfill the Objectives of the study. To collectdata we conducted semi-structured interviews for the user queries, Considering theuser queries we have implemented the visualization accordingly. After the Implementation, we presented the visualized architecture to the users. Using observations andquestionnaires we have taken their feedback regarding the usability of the visualizedarchitecture. Results: User queries provided by users are mostly related to how the components communicate with each other and what they are consisted of, users were alsointerested to view the architecture on a system level and also on a component level.Considering the relevancy and resource(time and data) constraints the user querieshave been filtered out. Considering the relevant user queries, we have visualizedthe software architecture and provided it with a graphical user interface. Visualizedarchitecture has been presented to the users. We have used Systematic UsabilityScale(SUS) questionnaire to evaluate the usability of the visualization. It has beengiven an above-average score((avg score:68) < ) in terms of usability by eighty percent of the users. Conclusions: According to our findings, customers tried out several GUI features and found some of them a little bothersome, but overall they all looked well andthey were pleased with the visualization that had been put in place. We discoveredthat four of the five target audiences and five out of six eternal users have providedscores that were higher than the average score of 68 ( provided by the System Usability Scale). We also got a lot of feedback from the participants about improving thesearch box by allowing multiple searches and letting the user make custom graphsbased on their needs, few of the users have also expressed some annoyance with thehovering functionality.