User Requirements for Effective Access to Digital Archives of Manuscripts

The availability of digital multimedia resources for cultural heritage poses challenging questions about the kind of interaction that is necessary to foresee to make them available to distinct categories of users. We report on a study on user requirements carried out on two groups of users: domain professional researchers, who need to carry out their research exploiting the functions of digital archives, and non-domain researchers, who need to enhance their experience of digital content and do not have a specific research interest for the digital content. A digital archive of illuminated manuscripts, called IPSA, has been used as a case study for recollecting user requirements. The results highlighted a number of additional requirements by specialized and by non-domain users. The relations between these outcomes provide relevant insights into the role of digital resources for the study and dissemination of cultural heritage.