Re-designing Greenstone for Seniors
Citation
Export citationBennett, E. K. (2008). Re-designing Greenstone for Seniors (Thesis, Master of Science (MSc)). The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/2278
Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/2278
Abstract
The golden generation have a wealth of experience and knowledge from throughouttheir lifetimes that younger generations wish to retain. In our technology filled worldan obvious means of collecting this information is electronically. Digital library col-lections are increasingly used by libraries and large institutions to record their largeamounts of information but they can also be used for personal collections.Seniors are often willing and keen to impart their years of experience upon peopleof the younger generation but time is not always on their side as they grow older.Throughout a lifetime a person could collect large amounts of papers, diaries, pho-tos and media but the time it takes to organise these documents can be long andexhausting and the person's health is not always at its best in old age.Greenstone is a suite of software for creating digital libraries, which are organisedcollections of documents. Greenstone has the ability to distribute collections eitherusing a server or CD-ROM, and provides advanced searching and organization tools.While Greenstone is a versatile and useful tool in creating digital collections, its in-terface is not designed for senior users. Seniors are commonly perceived to havemore physical and mental disadvantages as they get older. These disadvantages candramatically affect how usable seniors find a piece of software.The aim of this thesis is to investigate how usable the current Greenstone interfaceis for use by seniors and to re-design the interface so that Greenstone may be moreeasily used by senior users. This thesis focuses upon what types of documents anddescriptive data seniors would like to include in a collection about their life. This isto ascertain exactly what parts of the interface must be improved when it comes tometadata and classifiers. The results of this investigation also helped in the creationof a customised metadata set for senior users use.
Date
2008Type
Degree Name
Publisher
The University of Waikato
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Collections
- Masters Degree Theses [2493]