I wrote my master's thesis entitled Designing Online Thesauri: Interaction, Interface and Information Design and Case Studies on online vocabularies in which I tried to analyse them through interaction, interface and information design aspects and propose new interaction schemes and a unique user interface to create a new form of online vocabulary. My aim was to re-evalaute the usage and benefits that a vocabulary could offer today taking into consideration new technological and communication components to create a vocabulary that responds to contemporary demands and situations.
Compact Oxford Dictionary, Thesaurus and Wordpower Guide
I worked on the transformation of the printed vocabularies into screen-based online versions and its effects on the usability and language learning process. I analysed three online thesauri from interaction, interface and information design perspective and make comparisons with a printed thesaurus in terms of interaction and visual page elements.
I tried to identify the differences between the visual signs that direct the user’s attention during reading employed in both printed and screen-based interfaces. I carried out this analysis following Tufte’s theories on data and information visualization. In addition, I examined the screen-based interface elements of the thesauri in question and tried to demonstrate the usability problems through the guidelines proposed by Nielsen.
Visual Thesaurus - Compact Oxford Dictionary, Thesaurus and Wordpower Guide
At the end of this analysis I proposed a screen-based user interface model for an online social vocabulary intended solely for online use taking into consideration of related design issues and usability problems I encountered during the research.
Below you can find sketches of the user interface model proposed in the thesis for an online italian monolingual vocabulary. I used ItalWordNet as vocabulary database: http://bit.ly/TkU1Wt.
These sketches demonstrate a design approach for a model that would keep visible and accessible the most fundamental parts and indispensable elements of a vocabulary which could have sometimes scarce visibility or priority and be spatially reduced in online vocabularies.
Search Interface
Further information on the grammatical aspects of the word being searched
Visual Interface and Navigation Elements
Layout
Visual interface of the vocabulary with the circle of search in the center
Small circles representing the different layers of meaning of the word
The circle where the search data is shown and the transition from one layer of meaning to another
Definitions panel representing further information and functions that vocabulary offers about the word in question like usage examples, etimology and comments from the user community
The panel containing audiovisual materials correlated to the word being searched
The panel for viewing the audiovisual materials
Entries present in the circle of search
Semantic relationships [synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, hyperonyms, ecc] of the entries present in the circle of search
Transition from an entry to another
The circle of the new word grissino after the transition
Adding and saving a word to the word list
The map depicting the course of the search
