Purpose Statement + Research Questions

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore how emotion and poetics can be encoded within a programming language, particularly for people without traditional coding backgrounds. At this stage in the research, the encoding of emotion and poetics will be generally defined as semantic and functional structures in the programming language that acknowledge and care for the programmer’s emotions and intentions.

Research Questions

Central Question

How can a programming language embrace emotion and poetics?

Sub-Questions

• What is frustrating or confusing about learning to code?
• What assumptions are made of people in the programming experience?
• What barriers do people encounter in coding, and how do they overcome them?
• How do the words and symbols used in a programming language shape the programming experience?
• How is binary logic encoded within code?
• What emotional relationships do people form with code? How do they differ between programming languages?
• What makes a programming language “friendly” or “unfriendly”?
• What relationship can be constructed between code and meaning?