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Methods for user‐centered design and evaluation of text analysis tools in a digital history project
Author(s) -
Heuwing Ben,
Mandl Thomas,
WomserHacker Christa
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
proceedings of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2373-9231
DOI - 10.1002/pra2.2016.14505301078
Subject(s) - computer science , formative assessment , context (archaeology) , field (mathematics) , process (computing) , data science , human–computer interaction , mathematics education , paleontology , mathematics , pure mathematics , biology , operating system
This paper reports on the user centered, formative evaluation of tools and the validation of models for the analysis of historical textbooks in the context of the digital history project Children and their World . The goal of the project is to create methods for computer‐supported, interactive analysis that can be applied to a large corpus of historical textbooks on history and geography (∼5000 volumes). A first version of a tool for text analysis has been created based on a user centered design process, including a contextual study on current work practices of historians, participative design workshops, and the prioritization of requirements with the project stakeholders. In addition, several generations of text models used in these tools have been iteratively evaluated by the historians in the project. In the context of a cooperative validation study, researchers have used these tools to examine existing hypotheses from the field. The method enables the validation of text models regarding established knowledge, provides additional insights into the requirements for tools and visualizations, and helps to strengthen the expert users' trust in the tools. Based on the findings, this paper proposes four principles for the analysis of a corpus of historical texts. Moreover, the methods presented are discussed regarding the application of user centered design in the context of digital humanities projects.