Harnessing curiosity to increase correctness in end-user programming

Despite their ability to help with program correctness, assertions have been notoriously unpopular--even with professional programmers. End-user programmers seem even less likely to appreciate the value of assertions; yet end-user programs suffer from serious correctness problems that assertions could help detect. This leads to the following question: can end users be enticed to enter assertions? To investigate this question, we have devised a curiosity-centered approach to eliciting assertions from end users, built on a surprise-explain-reward strategy. Our follow-up work with end-user participants shows that the approach is effective in encouraging end users to enter assertions that help them find errors. Keywords Assertions, end-user software engineering, curiosity

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Aaron Wilson, Margaret M. Burnett, Laura Beckwith, Orion Granatir, Ledah Casburn, Curtis R. Cook, Mike Durham, Gregg Rothermel
• Keywords: CHI 2003, End-user Programmers, End-user Software Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, Keywords Assertions