Comparison of the different electronic versions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica: a usability study

Over the years, Encyclopaedia Britannica has undergone a number of revisions and has been provided in a number of formats other than print. The different electronic formats include a CD‐ROM version, a subscription online version, a free online version that was recently changed to a subscription version, and a DVD‐ROM version. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of the different electronic versions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The objectives of this study were to find out if one of the electronic versions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is easier to use than the others, to see if the users are satisfied with the information that they retrieved from each version, and to see if the users retrieve the same information from each version. Over one third (six) of 15 participants thought that britannica.com was the easiest to use. The main reason mentioned was the set‐up of the initial results screen. Most of the participants felt that all of the databases answered the searches sufficiently and nine participants felt that britannica.com answered the searches the best. The main reason mentioned was the variety of information sources provided on the search results page (Encyclopaedia Britannica articles, magazine articles, Web sites, and books). Seven of the participants were satisfied with using all of the databases.