Visualization vs. Specification in Diagrammatic Notations: A Case Study with the UML

In the world of diagrammatic notations, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) should be of special interest for cognitive studies. On one hand, UML integrates a host of different diagrammatic languages in real engineering use, and thus studying it should be itself extremely interesting. On the other hand, UML is adopted as a standard in software industry, and has already become a standard de facto in object-oriented analysis and design. This property provides a real practical value for UML studies. However, despite its dramatically increasing popularity, UML’s drawbacks are well known and widely criticized. Currently, users and vendors associate their hopes on a better UML with the next version of the standard, UML 2.0, but it is commonly recognized that the problems standing in front of UML 2.0 are extremely hard [3]. So, careful cognitive analysis of UML appears to be an interesting, beneficial and urgent issue in the diagrammatic world.