Inclusive Design: A Method and Craft of Transforming Digital Humanities with User Experience

Abstract

Project design in user experience and project design in digital humanities (DH) share many of the same motivating questions. When setting up surveys as part of your research, do you consider the language or purpose of the question? Are there leading questions? Have you considered the background or demographics of your audience? When setting up tasks for user-testing a research project, do you strategize how to recruit users with a diverse approach or just try to get as many as possible? These are just a few of the questions user experience (UX) professionals would consider when creating a digital project. These questions should also be asked by the creators of DH projects. This chapter will provide an introduction to the field of UX, an overview of the user-centered design (UCD) phases and applications in UX, an over-view of UX research and design phases, the importance of applying UX to DH, and will culminate in an inclusive design checklist that can help root the UX process in digital projects, regardless of the role of the subject specialist or reader of this book. This chapter is neither comprehensive nor definitive but is intended to be helpful to those who are new to UX and inclusive design in digital projects.