Generating mobile device user interfaces for diagram-based modelling tools

Mobile display devices such as phones and PDAs have become very widely available and used. However, most content on these devices is limited to text, static images and motion video. Displaying and interacting with dynamic diagrammatic content on such devices is difficult, as is engineering applications to implement such functionality. We describe a set of plug-in components for a meta-diagramming tool that enable a diagram type to be visualized and interacted with on mobile devices. Key features of our approach include generating diagram content from an existing meta-tool, run-time user configuration of diagram appearance and navigation, and multi-level, zoomable diagrams and diagram content. We describe our experiences prototyping, using and evaluating this new mobile device diagramming technology. © 2006, Australian Computer Society, Inc.