A programming system for children that is designed for usability

Abstract

A programming system is the user interface between the programmer and the computer. Programming is a notoriously difficult activity, and some of this difficulty can be attributed to the user interface as opposed to other factors. Historically, the designs of programming languages and tools have not emphasized usability. This thesis describes a new process for designing programming systems where HCI knowledge, principles and methods play an important role in all design decisions. The process began with an exhaustive review of three decades of research and observations about the difficulties encountered by beginner programmers. This material was catalogued and organized for this project as well as for the benefit of other future language designers. Where questions remained unanswered, new studies were designed and conducted, to examine how beginners naturally think about and express problem solutions. These studies revealed ways that current popular programming languages fail to support the natural abilities of beginners. All of this information was then used to design HANDS, a new programming system for children. HANDS is an event-based system featuring a concrete model for computation