Developing a graphical user interface for discrete event simulation

A key concern for the area of discrete event simulation modelling is to encourage its adoption and use by nonspecialists. To achieve this it is important that we focus on developing techniques and tools that can be used easily by people from outside the simulation modelling community. This paper explores the usefulness of one particular simulation modelling technique, hierarchical activity cycle diagrams (H-ACDs). We suggest that though H-ACDs are useful to simulation specialists, they can often be overly complex and can discourage non-specialists. We propose and develop a simplified version of H-ACDs, which we call simplified hierarchical activity cycle diagrams (SH-ACDs). We then go on to discuss the development of a simple graphical user interface which is the front-end to a modelling environment which supports the development of SH-ACDs. We discuss the way that an interface of this type can offer those without experience in simulation modelling the opportunity to develop simulations of their problem domain. We suggest that the SH-ACDs in conjunction with a suitable graphical interface can offer a potentially significant contribution by promising to open up the field of simulation modelling to non-experts.