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General Heuristics

These heuristics can apply to absolutely any kind of system with any kind of interface.

Abstract

Remove details in a model. Simplify by omitting low-level, granular bits so that the model focuses less on specifics and more on concepts.

For example, with an interaction diagram you could replace details about a set of communications with a single line named for the essential interaction that the communications represent. If you were working on an email client, the steps that the client goes through to send an email include connecting to the server, authenticating, and transmitting the data. Instead of identifying each of these steps in your model, you can remove the details and raise the level of abstraction by simply labeling ...