Page Source Heuristic Learnability Description If a source is structured by theme, then the only way to find a specific theme is to go through each volume’s table of contents looking for it. This is frustrating as the publication sequence of sources is often not...
Page Search results Heuristic Learnability Description The textual part of the search query is repeated in the text box and result count line; but there is no description of what filters were applied (e.g. filter on the Calendar of State Papers). Impact severity...
Page Search results Heuristic Efficiency, memorability Description The search results sequence is controlled by a relevancy algorithm. However, with a range of resources, users find it intellectually easier to approach the filtering process by date. This leads to more...
Page Search form Heuristic Efficiency Description Not a single user from our interviews even acknowledged the existence of the places, subjects and periods filters in the advanced search form. That was surprising as they all had to circumnavigate them to get to the...
Page Search results Heuristic Efficiency Description Users often have to filter out certain types of document by eye, lengthening the amount of time it takes to complete the task Impact severity High Recommend Include option to exclude both indexes and prefatory...
With the launch of History SPOT the Institute of Historical Research have also launched a brand new handbook written by our own Dr Mark Merry on the subject of designing databases for historical research. Mark is the primary tutor on our various Databases course and...
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