Helveg: Diagrams for Software Documentation

J 2025

Helveg: Diagrams for Software Documentation

ŠTĚPÁNEK, Adam; David KUŤÁK; Barbora KOZLÍKOVÁ a Jan BYŠKA

Základní údaje

Originální název

Helveg: Diagrams for Software Documentation

Autoři

ŠTĚPÁNEK, Adam ; David KUŤÁK; Barbora KOZLÍKOVÁ a Jan BYŠKA

Vydání

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS, United States of America, 2025, 1077-2626

Další údaje

Jazyk

angličtina

Typ výsledku

Článek v odborném periodiku

Obor

10201 Computer sciences, information science, bioinformatics

Stát vydavatele

Spojené státy

Utajení

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Odkazy

URL

Impakt faktor

Impact factor: 6.500 v roce 2024

Označené pro přenos do RIV

Ano

Kód RIV

RIV/00216224:14330/25:00141655

Organizační jednotka

Fakulta informatiky

Klíčová slova anglicky

Codes; Documentation; Visualization; Software; Unified modeling language; Urban areas; Source coding; Navigation; C# languages; Software architecture

Příznaky

Mezinárodní význam, Recenzováno

Změněno: 1. 4. 2026 11:01, RNDr. Pavel Šmerk, Ph.D.

Anotace

V originále

Software developers often have to gain an understanding of a codebase. Be it programmers getting onboarded onto a team project or, for example, developers striving to grasp an external open-source library. In either case, they frequently turn to the project’s documentation. However, documentation in its traditional textual form is ill-suited for this kind of high-level exploratory analysis, since it is immutable from the readers’ perspective and thus forces them to follow a predefined path. We have designed an approach bringing aspects of software architecture visualization to API reference documentation. It utilizes a highly interactive node-link diagram with expressive node glyphs and flexible filtering capabilities, providing a high-level overview of the codebase as well as details on demand. To test our design, we have implemented a prototype named Helveg, capable of automatically generating diagrams of C# codebases. User testing of Helveg confirmed its potential, but it also revealed problems with the readability, intuitiveness, and user experience of our tool. Therefore, in this paper, which is an extended version of our VISSOFT paper with DOI 10.1109/VISSOFT64034.2024.00012, we address many of these problems through major changes to the glyph design, means of interaction, and user interface of the tool. To assess the improvements, this new version of Helveg was evaluated again with the same group of participants as the previous version.

Návaznosti

MUNI/A/1638/2024, interní kód MU

Název: Umělá inteligence a správa komplexních rozsáhlých dat

Investor: Masarykova univerzita, Umělá inteligence a správa komplexních rozsáhlých dat

Citovat

ŠTĚPÁNEK, Adam; David KUŤÁK; Barbora KOZLÍKOVÁ a Jan BYŠKA. Helveg: Diagrams for Software Documentation. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS. United States of America, 2025, roč. 31, č. 10, s. 9079-9091. ISSN 1077-2626. Dostupné z: https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2025.3589748.

@article{2509516,
   author = {Štěpánek, Adam and Kuťák, David and Kozlíková, Barbora and Byška, Jan},
   article_location = {United States of America},
   article_number = {10},
   doi = {https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2025.3589748},
   keywords = {Codes; Documentation; Visualization; Software; Unified modeling language; Urban areas; Source coding; Navigation; C# languages; Software architecture},
   language = {eng},
   issn = {1077-2626},
   journal = {IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS},
   title = {Helveg: Diagrams for Software Documentation},
   url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11081426},
   volume = {31},
   year = {2025}
}

TY  - JOUR
ID  - 2509516
AU  - Štěpánek, Adam - Kuťák, David - Kozlíková, Barbora - Byška, Jan
PY  - 2025
TI  - Helveg: Diagrams for Software Documentation
JF  - IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS
VL  - 31
IS  - 10
SP  - 9079-9091
EP  - 9079-9091
SN  - 10772626
KW  - Codes
KW  - Documentation
KW  - Visualization
KW  - Software
KW  - Unified modeling language
KW  - Urban areas
KW  - Source coding
KW  - Navigation
KW  - C# languages
KW  - Software architecture
UR  - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11081426
N2  - Software developers often have to gain an understanding of a codebase. Be it programmers getting onboarded onto a team project or, for example, developers striving to grasp an external open-source library. In either case, they frequently turn to the project’s documentation. However, documentation in its traditional textual form is ill-suited for this kind of high-level exploratory analysis, since it is immutable from the readers’ perspective and thus forces them to follow a predefined path. We have designed an approach bringing aspects of software architecture visualization to API reference documentation. It utilizes a highly interactive node-link diagram with expressive node glyphs and flexible filtering capabilities, providing a high-level overview of the codebase as well as details on demand. To test our design, we have implemented a prototype named Helveg, capable of automatically generating diagrams of C# codebases. User testing of Helveg confirmed its potential, but it also revealed problems with the readability, intuitiveness, and user experience of our tool. Therefore, in this paper, which is an extended version of our VISSOFT paper with DOI 10.1109/VISSOFT64034.2024.00012, we address many of these problems through major changes to the glyph design, means of interaction, and user interface of the tool. To assess the improvements, this new version of Helveg was evaluated again with the same group of participants as the previous version.
ER  -

ŠTĚPÁNEK, Adam; David KUŤÁK; Barbora KOZLÍKOVÁ a Jan BYŠKA. Helveg: Diagrams for Software Documentation. \textit{IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS}. United States of America, 2025, roč.~31, č.~10, s.~9079-9091. ISSN~1077-2626. Dostupné z: https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2025.3589748.

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