Investigating the relationship between usability and conceptual gaps for human-centric CASE tools

Several interviews that we conducted highlight that many of the ease-of-use (usability) problems of CASE tools are instances of "conceptual gaps". A conceptual gap arises because of some difference between the software developer\´s mental model of the integrated development environment (IDE) and the way it can be used. Filling these gaps is the first step towards human-centric IDE. In this article, we begin by motivating our investigations with a survey highlighting common usability problems in the most popular Java IDEs. We then discuss how the developer\´s experiences with the complicity of cognitive studies can minimize these conceptual gaps while making the IDE more human-centered. We close our discussion with recommendations for establishing a rigorous scientific investigation for filling these conceptual gaps, as well as for developing and evaluating the ease of use of IDEs.