Designing Features for Both Genders in End-User Programming Environments

Previous research has revealed gender differences that impact females’ willingness to adopt software features in end users’ programming environments. Since these features have separately been shown to help end users problem solve, it is important to female end users’ productivity that we find ways to make these features more acceptable to females. In this paper, we draw from our ongoing work with users to help inform our design of theory-based methods for encouraging effective feature usage by both genders. This design effort is the first to begin addressing the gender differences in the ways that people go about problem solving in end-user programming situations.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: VL
• Authors: Laura Beckwith, Shraddha Sorte, Margaret M. Burnett, Susan Wiedenbeck, Thippaya Chintakovid, Curtis R. Cook
• Keywords: End Users, Gender Differences, Languages, Users Problem, VL 2005