This paper describes the results of a 6-year period of design, implementation, testing, and iterative redesign of a programming language, user aids, and curriculum materials for use by psychology students learning how to write simple computer programs. The SOLO language, which was the resulting product, is primarily a simple, database manipulation, program language, with an explicit "flow of control" construct in conditional statements which eliminates the elementary flow of control problems normally found in novices' programs. Following a description of project rationale and background, additional sections detail the programming language, the surrounding user environment, and the curriculum materials, listing the important principles underlying the design of each. Throughout the paper, the principles which could benefit designers of other software environments are emphasized. A 34-item reference list is included. (LMM)