4,417 research outputs found
Closing the Gap Between Designers and Developers in a Low-Code Ecosystem
Digital systems play an important role in the strategy of companies nowadays as they are
crucial to achieve their business goals as well as gain a competitive advantage. This is
particularly true for systems designed for the end-users market. Not only has the number
of such systems been growing steadily but the requirements and expectations of users
regarding usability and performance have also increased.
Developing software systems is a complex process that comprises several stages and
involves multiple professionals responsible for different tasks. Two stages of the process
are the design and implementation of User Interfaces. UX and UI designers produce
artifacts such as mockups and prototypes using design tools describing what should
be the systems behavior, interactivity and look and feel. Next, Front-end and Back-end
developers implement the system according to the specifications defined by designers.
Designers and developers use different methodologies, languages, and tools. This
introduces a communication gap between both groups, and hence collaboration between
them is not always smooth. This ends up causing less efficient processes, rework and loss
of information.
Developers sometimes overlook the importance of User Experience and Front-end De velopment. The corresponding project stages suffer when collaboration between groups
is not optimal. Problems are particularly striking during the transition from design arti facts to front-end code. The procedures for doing this are often manual, very error-prone,
and time-consuming for developers that end-up completely re-doing the designers’ work
in the target web technology.
The aim of this dissertation is to improve the efficiency of collaboration between de signers and front-end developers in the OutSystems ecosystem. This was carried out by
developing a tool that transforms UX/UI design artefacts into low-code web-technology
using model transformation and meta-modelling techniques. The approach has been
evaluated in practice by a team of professional designers and front-end developers. Re sults show savings between 20 and 75% according to the project complexity in the effort
invested by development teams in the above mentioned process.Os sistemas digitais têm um papel muito importante hoje em dia na estratégia das empresas, uma vez que as ajudam a atingir os seus objetivos de negócios assim como a ganhar
vantagem competitiva face às demais. Isto é particularmente verdade para os sistemas
destinados ao mercado dos utilizadores finais. Não só aumentou significativamente o
número de tais sistemas como aumentaram também os requisitos e expectativas dos seus
utilizadores.
O desenvolvimento de sistemas de software é um processo complexo que envolve
um número alargado de profissionais com diferentes perfis. Duas das fases são o design
de interfaces e a sua implementação. Os UI e UX designers produzem um conjunto de
ficheiros utilizando ferramentas de design descrevendo o comportamento, interação e
aparência do sistema. Os Front-end e Back-end developers implementam as funcionalidades do sistema com base nas especificações dos designers. Designers e developers
trabalham utilizando diferentes metodologias, linguagens e ferramentas. Isto introduz
uma lacuna entre os grupos e dificulta a sua colaboração, originando processos menos
eficientes, trabalho refeito e perda de informação.
Os engenheiros de software por vezes negligenciam disciplinas tais como a Experi ência do Utilizador e o Front-end. Estas fases dos projetos são prejudicadas quando a
colaboração entre os grupos não é ótima. Os problemas são particularmente evidentes
durante a transição entre design e Front-end. Os procedimentos são manuais, altamente
propensos a erros e demorados para os developers, que acabam por refazer o trabalho dos
designers na tecnologia web desejada.
O objetivo desta dissertação é melhorar a eficiência da colaboração entre designers e
front-end developers no ecossistema OutSystems. Isto foi levado a cabo desenvolvendo
uma ferramenta capaz de transformar artefactos de UX/UI em low-code utilizando transformações de modelos e técnicas de meta-modeling. A abordagem foi avaliada em prática
por uma equipa profissional de designers e front-end developers. Os resultados obtidos
mostram poupanças entre os 20 e os 75% de acordo com a complexidade do projeto no
esforço investido pelas equipas de desenvolvimento no processo mencionado acima
A DSL for PIM specifications: design and attribute grammar based implementation
IIS*Case is a model driven software tool that provides information system modeling and prototype generation. It comprises visual and repository based tools for creating various platform independent model (PIM) specifications that are latter transformed into the other, platform specific specifications, and finally to executable programs. Apart from having PIMs stored as repository definitions, we need to have their equivalent representation in the form of a domain specific language. One of the main reasons for this is to allow for checking the formal correctness of PIMs being created. In the paper, we present such a meta-language, named IIS*CDesLang. IIS*CDesLang is specified by an attribute grammar (AG), created under a visual programming environment for AG specifications, named VisualLIS
A professional development program for balanced literacy
A balanced literacy framework is a complex yet comprehensive avenue for literacy instruction that has been successfully implemented by the author in a low socioeconomic kindergarten classroom with remarkable achievement gains. This research project first describes the successful implementation and relates it to the professional literature on balanced literacy. A professional development program is then developed that will help teachers discover the importance of implementing balanced literacy practices and gain knowledge and understanding on how to implement the components of a comprehensive balanced literacy framework into their practice
Software Usage Data Visualization
This thesis aims at investigating the adequacy of the Unified Model for Software Engineering Data and its technical framework for developing visualizations of software usage data. Two visual notations were developed using the aforementioned framework and its visualization templates. The data source was provided by logs of the software Kactus2 that had been previously collected. The two visualizations were evaluated both on a semantic level with an ontological analysis (based on the BWW-model), and on a syntactic level with the Physics of Notations. They were also presented to developers of Kactus2 for an additional assessment of their usability and usefulness. The results indicate that the data model and framework are indeed adequate for visualizing complex usage data from Kactus2. Furthermore, the visualizations appear to be both easy to understand and useful (in the sense that they provide insight to the usage of the software) by the developers. Based on these results, we argue that software visualizations of usage data in general - and in particular using the Unified Model for Software Engineering Data - should be studied and developed further as they may help improve software engineering products and processes
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