The Intersection Between the CS Students’ Perceived Ideal Workspace and the Actual One

The concept of ideal workspace for software developers is being researched widely through individual and grouped studies. Such studies rely on the information provided by the participants. However, an individual’s perception of an ideal space might not align with the space in which they are actually productive. Therefore, it is necessary to further investigate by considering the individual’s actual workspace settings when they believed themselves to be productive. This research work examines the perception of an ideal workspace (for study and computer science education related tasks) of computer science students and the intersection between their perceived ideal settings and the actual settings when they felt satisfied with their work results. We interviewed nineteen computer science students using the focused conversation method. All participants are students of the bachelor’s program in computer science. The participants provided the visual description of their ideal work environment through drawings, and they also drew the workspace of the scenario, when they believed themselves to be productive. We examined both drawings to identify the intersecting features between them. Both workspace settings (desirable and real), identify the features (of the desirable working environment) that are an integral attribute of the student’s productive work.