Tony Poor

Graffiti ERD is a pen-based diagramming prototype that supports the creation of databases. Ken Shin played the developer to my designer, though our roles often intersected.

Entity-relationship diagrams are widely used for building databases. However, we conducted contextual inquiries with engineers of various experience levels and found that the database-creation workflow is disjoint. A design phase is common, where they brainstorm and sketch out a diagram. The result is then manually converted into an actual database (the development phase), and, when necessary, redrawn using diagramming programs and shared with others (the documentation phase).

Nearly everyone used paper or a whiteboard during the design phase. (The few who used computer tools were often novice-level and expressed frustration as they simultaneously multitasked two cognitive processes: learning the software and designing the database.) We decided on a tablet PC interface where users can quickly drag and draw elements; it supports the design process by intuitively emulating familiar paper diagramming (allowing users to focus on brainstorming). We then bridged design and development by providing a feature that converts the diagram into a MySQL database (and even recognizes potential errors while diagramming). Further interactions, like snapping to a grid, were provided to make the diagram presentable as documentation.

In terms of detailed interaction design, I was determined to stick to as few modalities as possible. Similar sketch-recognition tools often have separate buttons for selecting or moving items, but in Graffiti ERD you simply circle a group of items and, for example, draw a line to align them.

Collaboration (which sometimes occurs during the brainstorming phase) was left out due to time constraints and remains an interesting future problem.