From Usability Testing and Text Analysis to User Response Criticism

The article creates a bridge between the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Digital Humanities (DH), where HCI techniques are used to evaluate tools developed in DH projects and the results of this evaluation are analysed via DH methods. Two case studies in interface and game design are presented by the application of textual analysis to user-response via three systems, for visualisation of the text as a network (Textexture), corpus analysis (TXM), and sentiment analysis (TheySay). Although further experiments and more insight into the theoretical matters are intended, we assume that this kind of analysis, beyond its usability-oriented value, may inform humanistic interface design and approaching of user models, and inspire new paths of reflection on user’s self projection in the digital space, at the intersection of digital hermeneutics, digital aesthetics, and the theory of literary response.