Gender has been consistently controlled as a variable in usability and playability tests. However, there is no consensus on whether and how gender differences should influence the design of digital environments. According to some research, digital environments may be unintentionally designed especially for males as a result of the existing gender biases which risks reproducing gender-polarized culture in a computational field. This study attempts to highlight that females are still being negatively affected by existing gender stereotypes and prescribed gender identities despite relatively equal access and use of computer technology. This qualitative study aims to provide insights about the first-time user experience in a home environment of 16 middle school children in Turkey (8 males – 8 females), aged between 11 and 14 years, with a code learning game named “Code Combat”. The analysis is supported with complementary quantitative findings. The present study investigates the participants’ conceptualizations and opinions toward coding concept and this specific coding game. Further, it explores how existing gender stereotypes and gender biased expectations impact their behaviors and attitudes in the context of game experience. Our results indicated that perceived computer competence and perceived coding difficulty had important effects on the participants’ performance relatedly with their gender identity. According to our findings, there are important gender differences to be found in our 9 constructs, namely; perceived computer competence, perceived coding difficulty, identification, perceived game difficulty, perceived success, level of enjoyment, level of anxiety, the likelihood of playing it another time and the likelihood of trying new features.

Introduction

Discrimination and societal stereotypes against specific groups are still affecting a large number of people today and have very complex social roots. Even the concerned groups sometimes may normalize and reproduce the stereotypes against themselves while evaluating it as common sense. Increased use of computers and technology may be defined today as a remedy of long-lived inequalities in society, but it is also true that technology has not affected all groups in a society in the same way. Technology is advancing while leaving some people behind and may perpetuate precisely same inequalities in a digitalized world. It is called “digital divide” which is “a term that has been used to refer to the gap between those who have access to technology and those who do not, between those who have the expertise and training to utilize technology and those who do not” (Cooper & Weaver, 2003, p. 3). The digital divide is not only caused by lack of ownership or use of technology. Furthermore, negative/positive stereotypes, narrowly prescribed social roles and norms which have been installed in people’s minds throughout their lifespan could feed on this digital divide and maintain their presence in a virtual world maybe even more efficiently and sophistically than the real one. A digital divide also exists between men and women in which women cannot access and take advantage of technology as much as men do. The computer is not inherently gendered however it has been constructed socially as a male domain which causes “computer-phobia” among women (Cooper & Kugler, 2009; Turkle, 1986). The use, liking and competence of computer technology are associated with being a male (Brosnan & Davidson, 1996) as a result of the existing gender stereotypes and societal expectations which also put females in a disadvantaged position in the process.