User Assistance for Sketching Editors
User Assistance for Sketching Editors
On this website a sketching editor with user assistance is presented supporting a subset of the BPM diagram language. The diagrams have to be well-structured and are only allowed to consist of gateways, activities, start- and end events. The user is able to draw diagrams and can have them completed if necessary. In the following sequence of screencasts the editor's functionality is shown.
The editor has been developed by Christian Rutetzki for his Bachelor thesis Integration von syntaxbasierter Nutzerunterstützung in Sketching-Editoren (in German).
Basic functionality
The user can draw a diagram and have the editor check its correctness. The default shapes (circle, rectangle, line, arrow, lozenge) can also be drawn using an imaginary border rectangle (by pressing and releasing the left mouse button). As the freehand mode is hardly practical for mouse users this feature enables them to test the program, too.
Freehand-drawing of a simple diagram
Using the default shapes (useful for mouse users)
Freehand-drawing of a more complex diagram
Editing existing diagrams
Diagram completion
Incomplete diagrams can be completed by the editor. After chosing the number of components which shall be used for the completion the user starts the completion and gets a preview for the first possible solution. Then he has three choices:
- Have the editor complete the diagram using the current preview
- Complete the diagram on his own by overdrawing or ignoring the preview
- Choose another solution
Completion of a simple diagram
Completion of more complex diagrams
Overview and completion
Correction of diagrams
Example generation
The integrated completion mechanism can also be used for an empty canvas. In this case the completion works as an example generation.
