Abstract
As the archival profession evolves, attention is increasingly paid to the usability of its resources and services. User Experience, or UX, is a contemporary design practice gaining prominence among archivists interested in addressing usability. Information design, the process of organizing and presenting information for efficient and effective use, is a component of UX incorporating both the presentation and content of communication instruments, with plain language writing guidelines applied toward achieving this goal. A prominent information artifact produced by archivists is the finding aid, describing and inventorying archival collections. Those components of finding aids providing “access points” into collections—communicating the nature, history, and context of the materials—include several narrative elements, but how are they typically composed and how do they impact UX? Applying a series of readability and comprehension tests following plain language guidelines, we interrogate the usability and potential effectiveness of over 10,000 finding aids collected from 31 different archives. Our analyses suggest that finding aids offer fewer general audience access affordances than the format can support, and our research suggests that plain language writing is a manageable and measurable technique for improving the usability and experience of both finding aids and the archival collections they represent.
Recommended Citation
Williams, David J. and Kearney, Richard
(2025)
"Beyond Description: Interrogating Narrative Elements in Archival Finding Aids,"
Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies: Vol. 12, Article 13.
Available at:
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol12/iss1/13