Visual attention switching patterns of programmers debugging with an IDE

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) generate multiple graphical and textual representations of programs. Co-ordination of these representations during program comprehension and debugging can be a complex task. In order to better understand the role and effectiveness of multiple representations, and to design better IDE interfaces in future, we conducted an empirical study of java program debugging with a multi-representation IDE. It was found that program code and dynamic representations (dynamic viewer, variable watch and output) attracted the most attention. Static representations like Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Control Structure Diagrams (CSD) saw significantly lesser usage. We analyzed gaze patterns by breaking down the debugging sessions into segments of three, five and fifteen minute intervals, and classifying gazes into short and long gazes. Novel data mining techniques were used to detect high frequency patterns from eye tracking data of participants. Significant visual pattern differences were found among the participants based on their programming experience, familiarity with the IDE and debugging performance. CR Categories: H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation (e.g., HCI)]: User Interfaces Evaluation/methodology-Input devices and strategies;