JISC

Summary

ReScript is a prototype digital editing and research environment developed by the Institute of Historical Research to support collaborative work on historical texts. Demand for the tools made available through ReScript has been assessed by means of an online survey and a series of interviews with editors and researchers. The next stage is to enhance the interface such that it meets the needs of a variety of researchers working with very different texts, and with differing levels of expertise. The project will do this by organising two phases of user testing, both remote and in-house, followed by two build phases that take into consideration the test outcomes. A final user survey will evaluate the success of the resulting enhancements. Building on the surveys and interviews already undertaken, the project will also offer robust usability data to the wider scholarly community and to funders.

Objectives

To develop a learnable interface for ReScript, which will allow users to interact with historical texts in the most appropriate way for their research. The project also seeks to support the development of skills and the take-up of digital editing tools more widely among historians and other humanities researchers.

Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes

The project will deliver a revised version of the ReScript editing and research interface, as well as a detailed briefing paper outlining the usability/learnability issues encountered and they way in which the project addressed these, highlighting findings with wider applications. A blog will document the progress of the project and it will also be presented at a workshop discussing approaches to digital editing.