Remembering Our Rural Roots: A Usability Study

Abstract

With antecedents extending to 1837, ʻEleʻele School, a public elementary school located on Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi is significant in history, culture, and heritage. Reflective of its long history, the school holds a diverse collection of archives that derives its value from its longevity and depth, giving evidence of both the school's evolution and Kauaʻi’s changing landscape. Informed by perspectives on digitizing, a historical website was created and was evaluated in three iterative rounds of remote moderated usability testing with nine participants living in Hawaiʻi. The purpose of this usability study was to create and evaluate the ease-of-use of a historical website of ʻEleʻele School and the community in which it resides. Participants were asked to perform a series of tasks that were designed to allow for exploration through the site and to test potential problematic elements within the site. A mixed method approach was adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of the website and the perceived satisfaction of the participants. The intent was to increasingly improve the design of the website for a satisfying user experience. The results of this study suggest that effectiveness and satisfaction are strongly correlated, which is in line with those of previous studies.