The Design and Evaluation of an Online Dictionary User Interface

Abstract

This paper presents a new user interface design for an online dictionary. Online dictionary user interfaces have not been given much research attention over the years and this paper addresses this important gap in knowledge. The dictionary chosen for the redesign was the Norwegian Online Dictionary. The design aimed to improve usability and universal design aspects. The prototype was firstly evaluated using the Wave and SortSite automated tools. The prototype was evolved until these tools showed no errors to be present. Then, an empirical experiment with 20 human participants was conducted as a comparison of the new user interface and the Norwegian Online Dictionary user interface. Ten participants were native Norwegian speakers and the remaining ten participants were nonnative Norwegian speakers with a minimum of A2 Norwegian language level. Errors and user experience data were collected and statistically analysed using t-tests. User experience was elicited by means of a bespoke questionnaire. Statistically significant results were observed where most p-values were to the 0.0001 level, indicating strong significance. The analysis suggests the new prototype user interface incurred significantly fewer errors and significantly higher perceptions of positive user experience when compared with the Norwegian Online Dictionary. The new design could be easily used as a basis for future online dictionary designs or for improving current online dictionaries.