Critic Authoring Templates for Specifying Domain-Specific Visual Language Tool Critics

In recent years we have observed the extensive evolution of support tools that work with the user to achieve a range of computer-mediated tasks. One of these support tools is the critiquing system (also known as critics). Critics have evolved in the last years as specific tool features to support users in computer-mediated tasks by providing guidelines or suggestions for improvement to designs, code and other digital artifacts. While critic tools have been demonstrated to be effective in providing feedback, critic authoring continues to be a big challenge. We describe a visual design critic authoring template approach that facilitates the construction of critics for Marama-based domain-specific visual language tools. Our template approach provides end-users and tool designers with a new way to express design critics in a natural and efficient manner. We describe prototype tool support for specifying and realizing these design critics in Marama-based tools.