Considering visual programming environments for documenting physical computing artifacts

Abstract

In online communities makers share and give feedback on DIY projects. Such feedback could also help novices who get stuck in their projects. However, documenting work in progress is little considered in current tools. We therefore developed a HowTo related web platform for documenting work in progress and studied how children (aged 1318) used it to document their physical computing projects during workshops. The evaluation outcome questions the appropriateness of our web platform and reveals the benefits of visual programming environments for documenting physical computing artifacts. Suggestions are given how to extend visual programming environments into minimalistic documentation tools that provide ways for children to successfully share their work in progress with other makers.