Enhancing the quality of software design through multi-touch interfaces

Use of multi-touch interfaces for collaborative software design has become increasingly important. Such surfaces can accommodate more than one user concurrently, which is particularly useful for collaboration. In this paper, the quality of collaborative software design using Unified Modeling Language (UML) was studied. In particular, we looked at if/how the quality of students\´ design diagrams could be enhanced in a contemporary multi-touch table environment, as opposed to a traditional PC based environment. The results showed that multi-touch environment increased the amount of physical interactions and subjects\´ engagement with the design activities. In addition, the multi-touch setting encouraged students to be engaged in a discursive conversation using "Creative Conflict" skills.