Code review is a widely adopted software development practice aimed at finding defects, improving software quality, and transferring knowledge among developers. Performing an effective code review is a challenging task for developers. Two of the main challenges reviewers face are (1) understanding the content of a review change-set and (2) assessing the impact of a change on the codebase. Visualization techniques can be used to increase developers’ understanding of a changeset to review and its context. However, only a few attempts have been made to apply visualization to code review.
In this paper, we present a novel approach we devised to support developers in understanding GitHub pull requests. Our approach expands the GitHub interface with two lateral bars to let developers navigate to the definition/uses of the methods in the changeset under review.
We evaluated our approach’s interface through (1) interviews with eight developers and (2) a survey with 12 participants. Based on the results of this evaluation, we implemented our approach in a web-based tool, CHANGEVIZ.

**Code review is a widely adopted software development practice aimed at finding defects, improving software quality, and transferring knowledge among developers. Performing an effective code review is a challenging task for developers. Two of the main challenges reviewers face are (1) understanding the content of a review change-set and (2) assessing the impact of a change on the codebase. Visualization techniques can be used to increase developers’ understanding of a changeset to review and its context. However, only a few attempts have been made to apply visualization to code review.**
**In this paper, we present a novel approach we devised to support developers in understanding GitHub pull requests. Our approach expands the GitHub interface with two lateral bars to let developers navigate to the definition/uses of the methods in the changeset under review.**
**We evaluated our approach’s interface through (1) interviews with eight developers and (2) a survey with 12 participants. Based on the results of this evaluation, we implemented our approach in a web-based tool, CHANGEVIZ.**

CHANGEVIZ: Enhancing the GitHub Pull Request Interface with Method Call Information

The ninth IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT 2021) builds upon the success of the previous eight editions of VISSOFT, which in turn followed after six editions of the IEEE International Workshop on Visualizing Software for Understanding and Analysis (VISSOFT) and five editions of the ACM Sympo0sium on Software Visualization (SOFTVIS). In 2021, VISSOFT will take place and be co-located with ICSME.