User Experience Evaluation of the Radio and Television Media Management System
Tommi Lehtonen · Theseus (Ammattikorkeakoulujen) · 2014
The focus of this study was the National Audiovisual Institute’s (known as National Audiovisual Archive until the end of 2013) development of the user experience of the Radio and Television archive’s Media Management System for end users; researcher and students. The main user groups and their specific needs were described. The goal was to improve the user experience of the software based on the needs of the academic research of the radio and TV. The material of the study was a usability test conducted in spring 2013. Focus of the tests was in user experience of the software. The questions of this research are: How to evaluate the needs of the academic research? How to implement such needs as usability improvements into the Media Management System? What kind of information is needed, in what form and how? The theoretical basis of the study is concerned the assessment of the different usability testing methodologies and definition of user experience in the digital library software context. Digital libraries were seen to have similar goals and user cases as the radio and television program stream database. Studies of user experience in the context of digital library software formed an important background for this study. The results showed that complex search features were not preferred by the users and us-ers tended to prefer browsing instead of advanced search, so the features such as making notes should be promoted and developed more. For example, the participants were eager to use the My Desktop - interface, which enables saving notes and searches. They learned it fast, so the need for such a tool seems obvious, but it seems that the metaphor for the function is not correct. Researchers need efficient tools for storing and organizing the col-lected information for later use in academic research, and browsing the database should be promoted instead of advanced search features. This is in line with findings of the user experience research made in the field of digital libraries.