UC Irvine

In software engineering, a whiteboard is a commonly used tool. One particular setting is that of software developers using a whiteboard when they hold software design meetings. They do so because whiteboards offer a fluid and flexible drawing experience. At the same time, the simplicity of the interaction on the physical whiteboard (only drawing and erasing) can be a weakness. Researchers in the past have proposed different variations of whiteboards to make up for this weakness, but to date they have not addressed the fact that novices are prone to becoming lost in their design work precisely because of the fluidity and flexibility. This thesis presents Tabbie, an electronic whiteboard tool with preloaded tabs that are meant to guide novices when they engage in design work. To assess Tabbie, I performed a preliminary experiment with 15 university students designing a ride-sharing service. I present preliminary results that the existence of tabs can be helpful to novices when theywork on software design.