The ‘audioview’ – Providing a Glance at Java Source Code

Having an overview of the structure of information has been shown to be necessary to effectively approach the reading of it. This paper describes how programming constructs can be represented using speech and non-speech audio to provide an important ‘glance’ at program source code prior to reading it. Three methods of representing program code are investigated, using pure speech, non-speech and a combination of speech and non-speech to determine the most effective method to convey this type of information. On the basis of these results, this paper concludes that nonspeech sounds are able to successfully convey information about program structure. However, significantly better results are achieved when using speech output, either alone or in combination with the non-speech audio, with a significantly lower mental workload. These results suggest that earcons and non-speech sounds be used as a supplement to speech representations, rather than as an alternative.