This project builds tools supporting user expression and the collection and use of this information by software designers. The design exploration process provides users and other stakeholders a construction kit where they create annotated partial designs. A design repository collects partial designs and performs automatic analysis, including textual analysis of annotations and spatial analysis of graphical designs, to help identify interesting examples and patterns within the collection. Finally, an exploration interface is provided to software designers that provides for searching and browsing within the collection in order to better understand the task domain and user expectations and work practices. The design repository includes algorithms combining the analysis of text and the analysis of graphical layouts to index, cluster, and associate the user responses. Based on these results the exploration interface provides a variety of search and navigation features to the software designer. This approach leaves the software designer in control of deciding what to see and when to see it but supports these decisions. Additionally, combining search and browse options allows for a variety of work practices based on the software designers' understanding of the collection, their prior access to associated/related items, the focus of their current activity, and their preferences. This combination is prevalent today on the Web. The results of this project will have an impact on the design process by enabling the inclusion of a greater number of users and stakeholders in design and will facilitate communication about different perspectives on issues surrounding the design of software. The project Web site (www.csdl.tamu.edu/DesignExploration/) will be used to disseminate the research results, including the tools developed in this project that will be freely distributed for use in software development efforts.
