The master’s thesis describes the digitization of Tesnière's Linguistic Atlas for the study of the dual grammatical number in Slovene. The first part of the theoretical part of the thesis is devoted to the author Lucien Tesnière, his work and the Linguistic Atlas. This is followed by an overview of linguistic heritage and digitization, and user-centred design, focusing on user interface, user experience, interaction design, personas, and standardized questionnaires. In the last part, we review similar research in the literature, i.e. existing solutions for digitizing linguistic maps in Slovenia and France.
The practical part of the master’s thesis consists of four phases following the user-centred design methodology, the first phase of which is a review of similar research covered in the theoretical part. In the second phase, the user requirements are investigated, both in interviews with teachers and students of Slovene studies in dialectology courses at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana (UL FF), and in the scope of the maps covered by the printed atlas. A conceptual solution is created, on which the third phase is built. This designs the user experience, designs the user interface, and prototypes the developed design. In the fourth and final phase, the final prototype is tested among teachers and students of Slovene studies and some students of translation studies at the UL FF and among students of graphic and interactive communication at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering of the University of Ljubljana (UL NTF). In this phase, the user experience is analysed with the standard User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) and the attractiveness of the user interface is evaluated with the standard Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory (VisAWI) questionnaire.
The analysis of the user experience with UEQ showed that respondents were not satisfied with the performance of the prototype in use but appreciated it more for how it made them feel and how it looked. For a positive user experience, the usability of the prototype, its speed, and reliability in use should be improved in the future. The attractiveness of the user interface is slightly above average according to the VisAWI questionnaire analysis, but it does not stand out for its aesthetic quality.
Analysis of the prototype has shown that the digital atlas has potential for use in higher education courses and among the wider interested professional and lay public. This is confirmed by the partial validity of the hypotheses. The digital atlas in its final version will make a significant contribution to the preservation of cultural and linguistic heritage, and the working prototype, with the findings obtained through the research, lays the foundations and starting points for the final product, which is planned to be implemented by 2026.
|