BibTeX:

@inproceedings{10.1145/3411764.3445696,
author = {Denny, Paul and Prather, James and Becker, Brett A. and Mooney, Catherine and Homer, John and Albrecht, Zachary C and Powell, Garrett B.},
title = {On Designing Programming Error Messages for Novices: Readability and Its Constituent Factors},
year = {2021},
isbn = {9781450380966},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445696},
doi = {10.1145/3411764.3445696},
abstract = {Programming error messages play an important role in learning to program. The cycle of program input and error message response completes a loop between the programmer and the compiler/interpreter and is a fundamental interaction between human and computer. However, error messages are notoriously problematic, especially for novices. Despite numerous guidelines citing the importance of message readability, there is little empirical research dedicated to understanding and assessing it. We report three related experiments investigating factors that influence programming error message readability. In the first two experiments we identify possible factors, and in the third we ask novice programmers to rate messages using scales derived from these factors. We find evidence that several key factors significantly affect message readability: message length, jargon use, sentence structure, and vocabulary. This provides novel empirical support for previously untested long-standing guidelines on message design, and informs future efforts to create readability metrics for programming error messages. },
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
articleno = {55},
numpages = {15},
keywords = {human computer interaction, compiler error messages, CS1, HCI, readability, novice programmers, programming error messages, introductory programming, compiler design and implementation, students},
location = {Yokohama, Japan},
series = {CHI '21}
}

EndNote:

%0 Conference Paper
%T On Designing Programming Error Messages for Novices: Readability and its Constituent Factors
%@ 9781450380966
%U https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445696
%R 10.1145/3411764.3445696
%B Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
%I Association for Computing Machinery
%A Paul Denny
%A James Prather
%A Brett A. Becker
%A Catherine Mooney
%A John Homer
%A Zachary C Albrecht
%A Garrett B. Powell
%D 2021
%P Article 55
%K CS1, human computer interaction, introductory programming, programming error messages, novice programmers, students, HCI, readability, compiler error messages, compiler design and implementation
%C Yokohama, Japan

ACM:

Paul Denny, James Prather, Brett A. Becker, Catherine Mooney, John Homer, Zachary C Albrecht, and Garrett B. Powell. 2021. On Designing Programming Error Messages for Novices: Readability and its Constituent Factors. In <i>Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems</i> (<i>CHI '21</i>). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 55, 1–15. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445696