Comparison of Photo Library Programs

Conclusions

Impact for practitioners

The results of this experiment provide some useful information for design of photo library interfaces. Our results demonstrate that the layout and navigation of the photo library program have a direct influence over the amount of time it takes users to locate photos. The experiment results proved our hypothesis that subjects would be able to perform the tasks quicker with the PhotoFinder program because it provided a multiple window interface. Although it seems this interface was a little more complex, it allowed users to view thumbnails, photos, and collections all on the same screen. Designers for future photo library interfaces should try to include the same functionality that the PhotoFinder program provides. By allowing the user to perform all necessary navigation from one window, it eliminates changes between two different screen interfaces and decreases the chances of the user getting lost or confused with changes in interface. One other problem that many of our subjects commented on was the size of the thumbnails. It seems that users would prefer larger thumbnails if they can fit on the screen. (see Photo Thumbnail Browsers for more information)

Suggestions for future researchers

Photo library programs are evolving continuously and there is certainly room for more research in analyzing the different interfaces. We only experimented with three programs, however there are many other programs available that could be reviewed as well. One of the newest ideas is that of online photo library collections that allow people to create and maintain libraries over the Internet. This has both advantages and disadvantages and would be a very interesting area for further research.

Another interesting addition to our research would be to include the analysis of searching tools provided by the photo library programs. At the time of our experiment only Photosuite III supported searching, so we decided not to test on that criteria. However, the newest version of PhotoFinder includes a unique searching feature that allows users to search collections based on the annotation that has been provided for each picture. As these new techniques for searching develop this will become an important area for research about the effectiveness of searches.

Many other studies could be created to research other aspects of the photo library programs. We only researched the navigational interface for each of the programs. Studies could be done on library creation and management, portability of collections, or photo annotation methods.

Refine the theory or develop a new one

Although our results did prove our hypothesis that PhotoFinder would allow users to find photos more efficiently, the subjective satisfaction results showed little difference between the different programs. Further studies more focused on user subjective satisfaction might bring more light to what influences the users satisfaction levels.

Department of Computer Science: Direct questions and comments to the student editorial team