1. Fun-In-Flow
A learning aide to flowcharts
GUIDE
Prof. Keyur Sorathia, DOD, IIT Guwahati, India
Prof Rocco Servidio, University of Calabria, Italy

2. A ABSTRACT
Designing flowcharts is a key ability for learning any computer
programming language. Fun-In-Flow is a novel approach of
teaching flowcharts to 12-14 years aged children. Interactive
learning session introduces students to basic symbols, while
predefined programs help them to practice by manipulating
symbols blocks. Fun-In-Flow is inspired by Lego Duplo, where
algorithms are learnt, practiced and visualized through appro-
priate placing of symbol blocks.
Fun-In-Flow focuses on imparting education to the students
in the form of edutainment and tangible interaction. Students
can individually interact with the flowchart symbols hence
allowing them to both learn and practice the concept.

3. B SECONDARY
RESEARCH
Literature research has portrayed sufficient amount of work published, especially
software development environment, flowchart editors etc.
RAPTOR, the Rapid Algorithmic Prototyping Tool for Ordered Reasoning , was designed to address the
shortcomings of syntactic difficulties and non-visual environments.It allowed students to create algorithms
by combining basic flowchart symbols.
Structured Flow Chart (SFC), a structured flowchart editor is a graphical algorithm development tool for
both beginning and advanced programmers developed by Tia Watts, where user develops a flowchart, and
displays a textual representation of the same in either a C or Pascal-like syntax.
The Flowchart Interpreter (FLINT) supports problem-solving activities while utilizing minimal-syntax flow-
charts as visual representations of problem solving algorithms. It provides immediate feedback of an inter-
preted language as well as tools for simulation designed for use by novice programmers.
BACCII is an “iconic programming language” that provides an environment allowing the user to create a
design model using icons representing all the major programming constructs, such as loops, conditional
branching, within a syntax-directed environment. The user can then generate syntactically correct code for
any one of several text-based languages. Later BACII was developed into BACII++.

4. Primary Persona
Adarsh Gupta Adarsh is a student of Kendriya Vidyalaya Guwahati.
He is studying in 8th standard. He is very good at
studies and is always among the top 3 in his class.
He likes to play games and surf internet on computers,
and maths english are his favourite subjects. His
hobbies are to play cricket and draw. He has a
particular fascination toards cartoons.He likes to
learn through games and other different methods and
finds books to be very boring.
Age: 12 years
Hobbies: Playing cricket, surfing internet, watching
“ I like to learn through
cartoons
games. Books are boring. ”
Family members: 4
Fathers Occupation: Businessman
Computer literacy: Fairly conversant with computers

5. Served Persona
Seema Rana Seema Rana is a computer teacher in Kendriya
Vidyalaya Guwahati. She teaches students of class
7th to 10th. She likes to abide by the curriculum
and teach what is presecribed, and rarely goes out of
the syllabus. She has asked the students to purchase
the course book as per the instructions. However, she
is open to experimenting different, more practical
approaches for teaching.
Demographics
“ Kids are smart these days. Age: 42 years
You cant teach them anything. Occupation: Computer Teacher
They want answers.” Maritial Status: Married
Education: MCA
Hobbies: Reading Newspapers, Watching TV,
Travelling.

6. C SOLUTION
Content
Fun-In-Flow introduces commonly used symbols in flowchart design. The contents
were divided into 3 stages:
1. Symbol introduction
2. Daily routine problems
3. Software problems.
Design

7. Task Flow Diagram
START
User puts the
block on the pad
Red light glows No Is the block Yes Green Light Glows
right ?
Remove the
block from
the pad
STOP

8. D PROTOTYPING
The concept was prototyped
using Fiducials programmed
in Processing.

9. USABILITY
E
TESTING
Active Intervention method
Tasks
The task design stimulated participants to work with the educational system. We were interested to evaluate the
user interaction by giving to the participants some educational tasks. Course content of flowcharts and math-
ematics for grade 8th was reviewed and 5 tasks (in the order of increasing difficulty) were designed. Each task
depicted a gradual increase in the problem difficulty in terms of understanding of the concepts of flowcharts.
Starting from a simple hands-on breaking solution of a problem in an algorithm to solving a complex math-
ematics problem, the tasks project to provide the students with a novel way to learn and practice flowcharting.
For each task, the time of completion and accuracy were recorded.
Procedure
A procedure was defined, according to which the students would be briefed about the excercise.
In order to collect more information on the user interaction, we have designed a report skeleton where each
participant annotates personal impressions to use the system. The template includes the following main sec-
tions:
1. General aspects of the system
2. Readability
3. Complexity
4. Coherence
After completing the 5 tasks, participants’ will survey with a standardized questionnaire aimed at evaluating
the system usability.

10. USABILITY
E
TESTING
Questionnaire
Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction
Based on: Lund, A.M. (2001) Measuring Usability with the USE Questionnaire. STC Us-
ability SIG Newsletter, 8:2.
The questionaire also included a consent form and few questions required to deter-
mine the user profile and demographics
Final Report
For each task, the time of completion and accuracy were recorded. The report also in-
cluded a few subjective questions for interviewing the user aimed at discussing the the
painpoints and the success of the system through the user’s experience.