Art Historians' Use of Digital Images: a Usability Test of ARTstor

The purpose of this study is to investigate how art historians use images in their research and teaching and to evaluate the ARTstor image database by conducting a usability test. The content of ARTstor is made up of diverse collections of images that ARTstor has acquired through partnerships with museums, archives and universities. This study consisted of interviews with 2 art history professors and a usability test of 5 participants. The interviews provided guidance for the creation of tasks which were use in the usability test. Overall, the participants were impressed with the content and quality of images in the database; however, the results of the usability test found problems with the interpretation the icon functions and the Advanced Search field names and navigating the browsing feature. Recommendations are made for continued cooperation between art historians and ARTstor in order to make ARTstor as useful as possible