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ABSTRACT:End-user development has enormous potential to make computers more useful in a large variety of contexts by providing people without any formal programming training increased control over information processing tasks. This variety of contexts poses a challenge to end-user development system designers. No individual system can hope to address all of these challenges. The field of enduser development is likely to produce a plethora of systems fitting specific needs of computer end-users. The goal of this chapter is not to advocate a kind of universal end-user development system, but to cut across a variety of application domains based on our experience with the AgentSheets end-user simulation-authoring tool. We have pioneered a number of programming paradigms, experienced a slew of challenges originating in different user communities, and evolved end-user development mechanisms over several years. In this chapter we present design guidelines that cut across this vast design space by conceptualizing the process of end-user development as a learning experience. Fundamentally, we claim that every end-user development system should attempt to keep the learning challenges in proportion to the skills end-users have. By adopting this perspective, end-user development can actively scaffold a process during which end-users pick up new end-user development tools and gradually learn about new functionality. We structure these design guidelines in accordance to their syntactic, semantic and pragmatic nature of support offered to end-users.

Here, we describe how to facilitate EUD [4] by employing an agent-based approach as a means to create domain-oriented design environments (DODEs). We present two examples using the AgentSheets substrate:Domain-oriented languages. Domain-oriented end-user programming languages are used to define the behavior of agents; for example, creating speech-based Web interfaces that pragmatically analyze and summarize information.Domain-oriented agents. Agents can be used like building blocks in domain-oriented construction kits; for example, using agent-based design environments to allow people to learn about bridge design.AgentSheets initially grew from the idea of building a new kind of computational media that allows casual computer users to

Visual programming approaches are limited in their usefulness if they do not include a profile of their users that defines exactly who is attempting to solve what kind of problems using which tools and why. Without such a definition, visual programming approaches can end up as solutions in search of problems. Reconceptualizingprogramming environments as layered behavior processors in the context of creating SimCityTM-like interactive simulationsmakes end-user programming more feasible.The layered approach serves the programming needs for a range of users, including casual computer end-users and professional programmers. The extension of the Agentsheets system with the RistrettoTM agent to Java bytecode compiler is used to illustrate how a behavior processor enables end-users to create their own Java applets that can be embedded into web pages.