A demonstration of a distributed software design sketching tool

Software designers frequently sketch when they design, particularly during the early phases of exploration of a design problem and its solution. In so doing, they shun formal design tools, the reason being that such tools impose conformity and precision prematurely. Sketching on the other hand is a highly fluid and flexible way of expressing oneself. In this paper, we present Calico, a sketch-based distributed software design tool that supports software designers with a variety of features that improve over the use of just pen-and-paper or a regular whiteboard, and are tailored specifically for software design. Calico is meant to be used on electronic whiteboards or tablets, and provides for rapid creation and manipulation of design content by sets of developers who can collaborate distributedly.