This paper describes an empirical study of end-users that tested the usability of The Programmers\u27 Playground graphical environment. The Programmers\u27 Playground is a software library and run-time system for constructing distributed multimedia applications. Playground\u27s graphical environment enables end-users to create direct manipulation graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and to dynamically configure communication among distributed application components. In this study, 28 end-users with no prior experience in distributed computing or user interface construction were timed and evaluated on several tasks using our graphical environment. Tasks included the use of direct and indirect constraint relationships, visual configuration of distributed applications, and graphical user interface construction. The results show that a wide variety of end-users (i.e., not just programmers) can learn and apply these concepts, utilizing our graphical environment to constructe distributed multimedia applications
