Icons: Visual Representation to Enrich Requirements Engineering Work

Abstract

Adapting icons in requirements engineering can support the multifaceted needs of stakeholders. Conventional approaches to RE are mainly highlighted in diagrams. This paper introduces icon-based information as a way to represent ideas and concepts in the requirements engineering domain. We report on icon artifacts that support requirements engineering work such as priority types, status states and stakeholder kinds. We evaluate how users interpret meanings of icons and the efficacy of icon prototypes shaped to represent those requirements attributes. Our hypothesis is whether practitioners can recognize the icons' meaning in terms of their functional representation. According to the empirical data from 45 participants, the findings demonstrate the probability of providing users with icons and their intended functions that correspond to RE artifacts in a novel yet effective manner. Based on these findings, we suggest that icons could enrich stakeholders' perception of the RE process as a whole; however, meaningful interpretation of an icon is subject to the user's prior knowledge and experience.

Communicating content: development and evaluation of icons for academic document triage through visualisation and perception

“…A. Norman and Nielsen 2010;Isherwood and McDougall 2007;Lodding 1983;Gatsou, Politis, and Zevgolis 2012) So far, there has been limited knowledge on the factors that influence icon appropriateness within a broad context (Blankenberger and Hahn 1991). It is difficult to propose icons that are equally identifiable, in terms of ecological perception, as many factors influence the perception of icons, different intentions, attitudes and cultural characteristics for example (Huang, Huang, and Yu 2011;Syarief et al 2003;Khanom et al 2013). Furthermore, the interpretation of meaning may be compromised if an icon is separated from any contextual indicators (McDougall and Curry 2004).…”

PA161-4-GIIE-AE : memoria guía de implementación de arquitectura empresarial enfocada en instituciones educativas públicas colombianas

“…Ilustración 3. Metodología adaptada para la elaboración de la Guía de Implementación [13][14][16] [17] Fuente: Elaboración propia Los ciclos orientaron el trabajo, pero se tradujeron en una secuencia que determinó el método. Para ello, este trabajo sigue la propuesta de Peffers et al [5] en la que, precisamente se transforman los ciclos en seis fases como lo muestra la Ilustración 3.…”