Towards a more inclusive technical website: Knowledge gaps, performance, experience, and perception differences among various user groups

Abstract

This paper reports a usability and user experience research study of http://PBCore.org, a WGBH website supporting the PBCore metadata dictionary. Usability testing was conducted with 53 participants who worked in audiovisual processing and archiving. Significant differences in task performances and interaction experiences among user groups were found, most notably between broadcast and information professionals, archivists/librarians and other staff, and participants who had an LIS degree and those who did not. Qualitative observations afforded a deeper understanding of the difficulties that non‐LIS participants encountered. Recommendations for designing a more inclusive technical website include providing contextual and practical information on the homepage, delivering technical content visually and interactively, offering understandable definitions of terminology, and building a vibrant user community. Further research documenting users' knowledge gaps would be valuable. The paper concludes with a call for developing specific usability requirements for technical websites to create an inclusive and accessible user experience.

Perceived Usability and Experience with Digital Tools in the Context of Digital Humanities Research

“…Task performance and user experience can vary due to education, training background, and expertise (Tang et al, 2018). In many cases, experts may perform a task faster than novices, but differences may not be observed in terms of task accuracy, and graphical representations can reduce effort (Dillon & Song, 1997).…”

“…Much of the usability literature employs quantitative measures of task performance, with experienced or expert users generally accomplishing usability tasks faster than novice users (Dillon & Song, 1997; Ooms et al, 2012; Tüzün et al, 2016). The question of how task performance and interaction experiences differ based on user groups has been addressed by Tang et al (2018), who reported differences between broadcast and information professionals, archivists/librarians, and other staff, and those with a library and information science (LIS) degree and those without. Reading preferences may also affect users' search behaviors (Anna & Pertti, 2017).…”