Usability study on the online finding aid (OFA) of the National Archives of Malaysia

Abstract

The role of the National Archives of Malaysia is to keep, preserve and provide access to archival materials. To fulfil that role, the National Archives of Malaysia has held an online finding aid system named OFA to facilitate users to find and access the archive materials. The online system has significant disadvantage since researchers are unable to download and make online payment, despite the fact that this service is needed for an online finding assistance. However, there are useful services provided such as online searching, PDF view and online reservation. From the mentioned scenario, this study will investigate user perception on usability of the OFA. This study uses a research framework that will test Jacob Nielsen's five usability attributes (Learnability, Memorability, Efficiency, Error, Satisfaction) with the 'Intention to Use' from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to find out their relationship in OFA usability study. The researcher has collected 65 respondents’ feedback through questionnaires and their opinion for OFA improvement. This research has described the finding through quantitative method using statistics test result to determine the perception of users on OFA of and unravel the factors that influence the use of it based on Nielsen’s five usability attributes. It is found that the user’s perception on OFA is ‘moderate’ use and the Nielsen’s usability factors that influence on OFA usage based on percentage Likert scale score are preceded by Learnability, followed by Memorability, Satisfaction, Error, and Efficiency. The study also has shown that users want several improvements to the system. It was proved by 83% of the respondent answers the open-ended question wants the system to be improved that includes functionality, interface, network, and accessible content. Based on the research findings, this study suggested that the National Archives of Malaysia upgrade the efficiency of the OFA, such as the ability to download digital materials and access to more digital archives to increase its usage level. The study also suggested the OFA aggressively promoted to its targeted and potential new users primarily through a social media campaign as an effort to attract and increase the use of OFA.