Fostering User Experience Quality Improvement in Digital Library

The aim of this paper is to present our approach for the redesign of a thematic Digital Library (DL) related specifically to the history of European integration (called European NAvigator, ENA). For the next version of this DL (called ENA 2010), special attention has been paid to DL user experience. Our approach for the redesign has been based on consulting DL user’s communities before starting the practical design of the next DL. The DL user’s communities study permitted to obtain a list of users’ expectations and needs towards the DL. We made the observation that if some users’ expectations and needs would be possibly solved by functionality on the screen; other users’ expectations and needs are much more complex to meet because they go beyond the original role expected from a DL which is to facilitate the access to objects of information and offer a collection of services to the users. The results demonstrated the interest of achieving a DL users study in the preliminary phases of a DL project. Through this user-centered design approach, it has been possible to incorporate users' perspectives into the development of our thematic DL. Ultimately, it enables to better match users' expectations and needs and to promote user experience.