Usability evaluation of online terminology databases

In the day-to-day work with information retrieval tools, users are faced with systems that are difficult to understand and use. This is the case for linguists and translators, experts in language but not necessarily in the use of reference tools, designed in many cases from the viewpoint of their developers without considering the end-users. This gap between developers and users leads to incorrect use - or at least inefficient use - of electronic dictionaries, terminology databases, and other digital resources used by these professionals. In our daily work with linguists and translators we have discovered that these tools are difficult to use, and we believe that this is due to the fact that the aspects of usability are not considered during the design process and development. There are as of yet no definitive guidelines established to direct the presentation of these types of tools, only a few general recommendations for usability as applied to online terminology databases, such as those proposed by Marcos and Gómez (2006).

In this article we present a study carried out between December of 2005 and March of 2006 by a group of researchers from the Pompeu Fabra University in which we established and applied a methodology to analyze the quality of terminology databases, with usability as the fundamental criterion. The ISO defines usability as the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use (ISO 9241-11). This definition proves to be quite illuminating, as it divides usability into the different aspects to be considered: effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. It also makes a distinction with respect to the goal, the user, and the context of use.