End-Users' Mental Models of Concepts Critical to Web Application Development

We report an empirical study of nonprogrammers' mental models regarding particular concerns in Web application development such as input validation, database lookup, and overview-detail relationships. The goal of the study was to understand how nonprogrammers think about the data and logic underlying a Web application. In continuing work, we are using this understanding as a basis for the design of tools and development resources that are intuitive and easy to use. The current paper describes the empirical work that was done and discusses its implications for the design of end-user Web development tools that could be used to develop Web applications of intermediate complexity

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