A Collaborative Multi-Touch UML Design Tool

The design and development of software projects is usually done in teams today. Collaborative systems based on multi-touch walls or large table-top screens could support these highly interactive tasks. We present a novel collaborative design tool which allows several developers to jointly create complex UML (Unified Modeling Lan-guage) diagrams. We have developed new algorithms to recognize the gestures drawn by the users, to create the respective elements of the diagram, to adjust the edges between classes, and to improve the layout of the classes automatically. Auxiliary lines provide the user with means to align classes precisely so a more consistent lay-out is achieved. Export functionality for XML and Java code skele-tons completes the application; the UML diagram can thus be used in further steps of the software design process. User evaluations confirm considerable benefits of our proposed system