research-article

Polymorphic Blocks: Formalism-Inspired UI for Structured Connectors

Authors:

Stephen R. Foster,

William G. GriswoldAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 3063 - 3072

https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702302

Published: 18 April 2015 Publication History

Abstract

We present a novel block-based UI called Polymorphic Blocks, in which a connector's shape visually represents the structure of the data being passed through the connector. We use Polymorphic Blocks to add visual type information to block-based programming environments like Blockly or Scratch. We also use Polymorphic Blocks to represent logical proofs. In this context, if we erase all symbols, our UI becomes a puzzle game, where solving the puzzle amounts to building a proof. We show through a user study that our Logical Puzzle Game is faster, more fun, and more engaging than an equivalent pen-and-paper interface.

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Cited By

Steimann FStunic RLaemmel RPereira JMosses P(2024)The Linguistic Theory behind Blockly LanguagesProceedings of the 17th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering10.1145/3687997.3695636(113-129)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3687997.3695636
Korkut J(2023)A Proof Tree Builder for Sequent Calculus and Hoare LogicElectronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science10.4204/EPTCS.375.5375(54-62)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.375.5
Poulsen SViswanathan MHerman GWest M(2022)Evaluating proof blocks problems as exam questionsACM Inroads10.1145/351421313:1(41-51)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3514213
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Polymorphic Blocks: Formalism-Inspired UI for Structured Connectors
1. Human-centered computing

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2015

4290 pages

ISBN:9781450331456

DOI:10.1145/2702123

General Chairs:
Bo Begole
Huawei, USA
,
Jinwoo Kim
Yonsei University, Korea
,
Program Chairs:
Kori Inkpen
Microsoft Research, USA
,
Woontack Woo
KAIST, Korea

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Published: 18 April 2015

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NSF

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CHI '15

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SIGCHI

CHI '15: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 18 - 23, 2015

Seoul, Republic of Korea

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CHI '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 486 of 2,120 submissions, 23%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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CHI '25

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CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2025

Yokohama , Japan

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Cited By

Steimann FStunic RLaemmel RPereira JMosses P(2024)The Linguistic Theory behind Blockly LanguagesProceedings of the 17th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering10.1145/3687997.3695636(113-129)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3687997.3695636
Korkut J(2023)A Proof Tree Builder for Sequent Calculus and Hoare LogicElectronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science10.4204/EPTCS.375.5375(54-62)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.375.5
Poulsen SViswanathan MHerman GWest M(2022)Evaluating proof blocks problems as exam questionsACM Inroads10.1145/351421313:1(41-51)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3514213
Poulsen SViswanathan MHerman GWest MBecker BQuille KLaakso MBarendsen ESimon (2022)Proof BlocksProceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 110.1145/3502718.3524774(428-434)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3502718.3524774
Donato PStrub PWerner BPopescu AZdancewic S(2022)A drag-and-drop proof tacticProceedings of the 11th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs10.1145/3497775.3503692(197-209)Online publication date: 17-Jan-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3497775.3503692
Poulsen SViswanathan MHerman GWest M(2021)Evaluating Proof Blocks Problems as Exam QuestionsProceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/3446871.3469741(157-168)Online publication date: 16-Aug-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3446871.3469741
Aghayi ELaToza TSurendra PAbolghasemi S(2021)Crowdsourced Behavior-Driven DevelopmentJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2020.110840171(110840)Online publication date: Jan-2021
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2020.110840
Lewis C(2017)Representation, Inclusion, and Innovation: Multidisciplinary ExplorationsSynthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics10.2200/S00812ED1V01Y201710HCI03810:4(i-93)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2017
https://doi.org/10.2200/S00812ED1V01Y201710HCI038
Omar CVoysey IHilton MAldrich JHammer M(2017)Hazelnut: a bidirectionally typed structure editor calculusACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3093333.300990052:1(86-99)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3093333.3009900
Bau DGray JKelleher CSheldon JTurbak F(2017)Learnable programmingCommunications of the ACM10.1145/301545560:6(72-80)Online publication date: 24-May-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3015455
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