OctoBubbles: A Multi-view interactive environment for concurrent visualization and synchronization of UML models and code

The process of software understanding often requires developers to consult both high- and low-level software artifacts (i.e. models and code). The creation and persistence of such artifacts often take place in different environments, as well as seldom in one single environment. In both cases, software models and code fragments are viewable separately making the workspace overcrowded with many opened interfaces and tabs. In such a situation, developers might lose the big picture and spend unnecessary effort on navigation and locating the artifact of interest. To assist program comprehension and tackle the problem of software navigation, we present OctoBubbles, a multi-view interactive environment for concurrent visualization and synchronization of software models and code. A preliminary evaluation of OctoBubbles with 15 professional developers shows a high level of interest, and points out to potential benefits. Furthermore, we present a future plan to quantitatively investigate the effectiveness of the environment.