Design de interfaces de pesquisa de plataformas de acervos culturais digitais: um conjunto de recomendações de UX

Abstract

The availability of cultural collections from libraries, archives and museums on platforms in the digital environment democratizes access to content and presents several advantages, such as the consultation of documents by several users at the same time and without geographic restrictions. However, users are exposed to a process of searching for information, which can be complicated when they do not have mastery of knowledge about cultural collections or access tools, in the same way as professionals in the area and the specialized public. The user's involvement with the platform interferes with access and, consequently, with the enjoyment and use of the collections. In this way, it is necessary to focus on the user, which ultimately requires that the projects and improvements of digital platforms be undertaken taking into account, in addition to technological issues and information organization, user engagement and the understanding of what is important to them. From the above, therefore, it is understood that these platforms require their own qualities and in this sense, the present study aimed to configure design recommendations for the development of research interfaces of platforms for access to cultural collections of memory institutions, focusing on the non-specialist user experience, considering the relationships between the scopes of Design, cultural heritage and the digital search for information. As a methodological approach, the case study associated with Design Science Research was used, consisting of four phases: understanding, proposition, evaluation and conclusion. As a result, a configured, organized and validated set was obtained in eleven categories and thirty-two design recommendations, based on the scientific literature on the subject, the analysis of how reference platforms enable the search and retrieval of information and listening to the point of view of collection specialists and the non-specialist public. As additional contributions are: the list of factors that affect the user experience, the method and the descriptive model for the development of personas and the personas representing real users of Fiocruz's cultural collections. It is believed that this set of recommendations can contribute to the improvement of the digital products that are its object of study, from a global and structured view of this type of artifact and that can be used by cultural institutions in the basis of decision-making in its collections diffusion projects in the digital environment. In the academic field, it is expected to contribute to the literature on experience design in the context of cultural heritage in the digital environment. This is a recent topic, socially relevant, that has been debated within cultural institutions and that still lacks studies that foment discussion about the importance of understanding the mental model of users, who now live in an increasingly digital and virtual world.