The Aesthetics of Software Code

While research linking science and aesthetics continues to proliferate, in technical domains like software development, quantitative investigations of aesthetics are virtually nonexistent. As an initial exploration, we administered an online survey to 12 experts and 38 novices in programming, assessing the frequency, nature, time course, and judgment criteria of their aesthetic experience with software code. Both groups reported having aesthetic experiences with code, though somewhat less frequently and intensely than with other creative artifacts. Overall, judgments of “ugly” code were reported to be faster than those of “beautiful” code, which in turn were faster than those of “correct” code. Aesthetic considerations of code were generally rated as quite important, though not as important as functionality. Finally, aesthetic judgment criteria were highly correlated among experts and novices. Results suggest a quantitative approach to aesthetics in software code is a promising direction, with trans-domain implications for aesthetics and creativity.