Rethinking the Traditional Design of Meta-Models: Layout Matters for the Graphical Modeling of Technical Systems

Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) promotes the use of models for the design and analysis of software-intensive systems. These models are specified using dedicated, oftentimes graphical modeling languages. This includes general purpose languages such as SysML or UML which may be tailored to specific domains, and domain-specific languages with a much narrower scope. Either way, the specification of graphical modeling languages and the construction of MDE environments supporting these languages is centered on the definition of a meta-model. Meta-models capture the relevant domain abstractions and concepts by specifying the abstract syntax and static semantics of a graphical modeling language, while the concrete syntax definition, layouting principles and user interactions for model editing are only superficially addressed. This observation holds both for the current state-of-practice and the academic literature, and is at odds with the domain studied in this paper, namely the graphical modeling of real-world technical systems. Our practical observation and central hypothesis is that, in this domain, human factors should be primary concern for the design of domain-specific languages and environments, which enable domain experts to understand, create and edit their models much more efficiently and effectively. As basis for further discussion at the workshop, we report on our ongoing work to develop a technical approach and research methodology to validate this hypothesis in future empirical studies.