A human factors experimental comparison of SQL and QBE

Author

Yen, Minnie Yi-Miin ; Scamell, Richard W.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Bus. Comput. Inf. Syst., Alaska Univ., Anchorage, AK, USA

Volume

19

Issue

4

fYear

1993

fDate

4/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

390

Lastpage

409

Abstract

SQL and QBE are compared in the same operating environment, and the effects of query language type and other variables on user performance and satisfaction are studied. The experimental design combined a factorial design and a counterbalanced design in an effort to compare SQL and QBE. The results indicated that query language type affects user performance in paper and pencil testing, with QBE users having higher scores than SQL users. In contrast, in online testing, query language type had no effect on user performance. In addition, under certain conditions, query complexity had a significant effect on user performance and user satisfaction was influenced by query language type. Moreover, order of exposure impacted user performance on the basis of interaction with query language type, query complexity, and programming experience

Keywords

human factors; query languages; QBE; SQL; counterbalanced design; factorial design; human factors experimental comparison; online testing; operating environment; query complexity; query language type; user performance; ANSI standards; Database languages; Design for experiments; Human factors; Laboratories; Natural languages; Relational databases; Standards development; Testing; User interfaces;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0098-5589

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/32.223806

Filename

223806