The impact of human-centered features on the usability of a programming system for children
CHI '02 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Towards more natural functional programming languages
Proceedings of the seventh ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming
iCAP: an informal tool for interactive prototyping of context-aware applications
CHI '03 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Dynamic dimensional feedback: an interface aid to business rule creation
CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
A logic block enabling logic configuration by non-experts in sensor networks
CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Invited research overview: end-user programming
CHI '06 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
eBlocks: an enabling technology for basic sensor based systems
IPSN '05 Proceedings of the 4th international symposium on Information processing in sensor networks
End user software engineering: CHI 2007 special interest group meeting
CHI '07 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
No ifs, ands, or buts: uncovering the simplicity of conditionals
Proceedings of the 22nd annual ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming systems and applications
End user software engineering: chi'2008 special interest group meeting
CHI '08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
More natural end-user software engineering
Proceedings of the 4th international workshop on End-user software engineering
Journal of Visual Languages and Computing
Enabling nonexpert construction of basic sensor-based systems
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)
Reflections of everyday activities in spending data
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
End user software engineering: CHI: 2009 special interest group meeting
CHI '09 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
A framework and methodology for studying the causes of software errors in programming systems
Journal of Visual Languages and Computing
End user software engineering: CHI 2010 special interest group meeting
CHI '10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Addressing mobile information overload in the universal inbox through lenses
Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services
iCAP: interactive prototyping of context-aware applications
PERVASIVE'06 Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Pervasive Computing
Visually defining and querying consistent multi-granular clinical temporal abstractions
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
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The accurate formulation of Boolean expressions is a notorious problem in programming languages and database query tools. This paper studies the ways that untrained users naturally express and interpret queries, revealing some of the underlying reasons why this task is so difficult. Among the study's findings are: people interpret the word AND to mean either conjunction or disjunction depending on context, the scope to which they attribute the word NOT depends on whether the subsequent operator is AND or OR, and they often ignore parenthesis. Therefore, relying on these words and symbols for query formulation will result in poor usability. A tabular query form is proposed that avoids the need to name the operators, provides a clear distinction between conjunction and disjunction, and makes grouping more explicit. Comparing the tabular language with textual Boolean expressions, the study finds that untrained users perform better, when they express their queries in the tabular language, and about equally well when interpreting queries written in either language. We conclude that systems may benefit by adopting a tabular notation for query formulation.