CodeSmellExplorer: Tangible exploration of code smells and refactorings

Abstract

CodeSmellExplorer is an interactive exploration and learning tool for code smells and associated refactorings, used on a tabletop. The evaluation of our University course about good coding practices shows that undergraduate students frequently fail to recognize bad coding practices without prior training. However, the results also confirmed that gamification elements, such as coding challenges, are regarded as interesting and stimulating. CodeSmellExplorer is an attempt to familiarize users with good coding practices by visualizing an interactive graph network of code smells and connected refactorings. Users can explore those relationships or start challenges with built-in feedback systems.