Preliminary results of measuring flow experience in a software modeling tool: UmpleOnline

Weaknesses in the user experience (UX) provided by software modeling tools have been identified as important barriers reducing the uptake of such tools by developers. Emotional factors as essential parts of user experience have received little attention so far. Literature suggests that higher flow experience is associated with higher positive emotional state. Good flow experience means people feel they have clear goals and are focusing well on a task that they regard as enjoyable and are doing reasonably well at; furthermore, they do not feel a need to be concerned about time or what others are thinking and have a sense they are getting good feedback about their progress. Achieving flow is important for performance in creative tasks such as modeling. To learn more about flow we used a questionnaire-based empirical study to measure flow experience of UmpleOnline users. This paper reports preliminary results from 24 respondents, demonstrating a moderate experience of flow state in UmpleOnline. Our objective in this paper is to stimulate the research community to think about how flow can best be measured.