S.S. Bhowmick, J. Küng, and R. Wagner (Eds.): DEXA 2009, LNCS 5690, pp. 727–734, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 Intuitive Visualization-Oriented Metamodeling Dirk Draheim 2 , Melanie Himsl 1 , Daniel Jabornig 1 , Werner Leithner 1 , Peter Regner 1 , and Thomas Wiesinger 1 1 FAW-Institute, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria {mhimsl,djabornig,wleithner,pregner,twiesinger}@faw.at 2 ZID, University of Innsbruck, Austria draheim@acm.org Abstract. In this article we present a metamodeling tool that is strictly oriented towards the needs of the working domain expert. The working domain expert longs for intuitive metamodeling features. In particular this concerns rich capa- bilities for specifying the visual appearance of models. In these efforts we have identified an important design rationale for metamodeling tools that we call vis- ual reification – the notion that metamodels are visualized the same way as their instances. In our tool we support both, standard metamodeling features and new metamodeling features that are oriented towards the visual reification principle. We will start an unbiased discussion of the pragmatics of metamodeling tools against the background of this design rationale. 1 Introduction In successful projects of today’s enterprises we see modeling activities in business reengineering, logistics, supply chain management, industrial manufacturing and so on. Models foster the communication between stakeholders, because they enforce a certain standardization of the respective domain language. Therefore, they speed up requirement elicitation and then serve as a long-time documentation of system analy- sis efforts. Modeling is here to stay. Even if models are not intended as blueprints in software development projects they add value. For example, we currently see huge business process redocumentation projects in major enterprises. Research in model- driven engineering is important. In these efforts we have a different focus on model- ing than model-driven engineering. We have a look at the working domain [12] expert. Often, it is necessary to adapt the modeling method and, in particular, to adapt the used modeling language to the current needs of the domain. It may become neces- sary to introduce new modeling elements, to deprecate an existing model element, to add attributes to an existing modeling element, to detail the semantics or to change the appearance of a model element. 2 Motivation and Requirements for a Visualization-Oriented Meta- and Instance Modeling Tool Unlike most of the research done in domain specific modeling, metamodeling and model transformation we can place the origin of this work in the area of business or