Complexity, Ambiguity And Uncertainty: A User-Centred Approach To Maximising Access And Use Of Event-Based Cultural Heritage Data
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Abstract
Current EU (FP7) funded research priorities in the cultural heritage domain understandably favour projects that address generic and large scale systemic issues such as barriers to mass digitisation, automated content capture and data mining, resource sharing, multilingual access and broad frameworks for long term data preservation. While these are undeniably important, access to and use of cultural and scientific resources also depend on the usabilty of individual Web sites. The majority of Web sites are difficult to use, resulting in frustration, unnecessary costs and loss of repeat visits. Users do not wish to invest significant time in learning how to get the best out of a site. So interface design is a significant factor in determining levels of access and use. This paper examines some interface design challenges encountered in the context of developing an online database of historical exhibition catalogues. It identifies issues that distinguish event-based data sets from other database design projects and discusses the extent to which a user-centred design approach and paper prototyping in particular can help to address these issues.