This study evaluates the usability and perceived usefulness of Recogito, a semantic annotation tool designed for heritage knowledge exchange and citizen engagement. Recogito provides a personal workspace where you can upload, collect and organize your source materials - texts, images and tabular data - and collaborate in their annotation and interpretation.

The Recogito evaluation employed a mixed-method iterative design with user testing during an in-person workshop. The current paper presents the first iteration of this process, which is aimed at informing the next redesign. Five participants, all professionals working in museums or heritage research, were recruited for the study. They completed a series of seven tasks while thinking aloud, allowing researchers to observe their thought processes as they interacted with Recogito. These tasks focused on common actions users might perform, such as finding documents, adding annotations to text passages, and assigning documents to others for collaboration. Additionally, the participants completed a short survey that measured their perception of Recogito's usability and usefulness using a standardized metric known as UMUX.

The analysis of the user testing sessions and surveys revealed that the participants generally found Recogito's functionalities relevant to their needs, with an overall UMUX score of 73.33%. Several features were praised, including the automatic identification of locations within text, the ability to add geotags, and the collaborative features that allow for shared work on documents. However, the study also identified areas for improvement in Recogito's interface. Participants expressed confusion regarding the icon for the map view, the placement of the filtering button, and the overall discoverability of some features like geotagging and document assignment. Downloading annotations also proved to be a challenge for some users.

The findings suggest that Recogito has the potential to be a valuable tool for citizen science initiatives in heritage domains. However, to fully realize this potential, the user interface needs to be improved to enhance clarity and discoverability of features, particularly for users with less experience. The user feedback from this study provides valuable insights for future development efforts, with the ultimate goal of creating a user-friendly version of Recogito that can empower professionals but also citizen scientists to engage in meaningful heritage knowledge exchange activities.

Keywords: Educational technology, data annotation, knowledge exchange, digital humanities, usability testing.