What would make a Digital Humanities project “good”? We have used many different digital tools during our time as a class but I’m sure we would agree that some of them were easier to use than others. Here are a few project elements that would make an ideal digital tool.

-accessibility

-simplicity & organization

-navigation

-clear illustration

-accurate data

These are a few things I think that are needed to have a good DH project. I think it is important to be able to access these projects with little or no difficulty. Some DH projects I have accessed required me to have some sort of username and I think this is more of a hindrance to the user instead of a benefit. Simplicity is key to a good Digital Humanities project. An example of a simple but good DH project would be the archive “Nineteenth-Century Disability: Cultures & Contexts”. The information provided is easy to locate because the website is well organized and there isn’t unnecessary clutter filling up the screen space.

Navigation is key to a good DH project. I’ll use the same example as before.

These tabs are the only way to navigate this database but there is also a search bar which allows you to search for something specific in the database.

With Projects like Voyant and Worldle which uses illustrations such as word clouds need to be able to present their information clearly so the data could be interpreted correctly. The last but not least element that would make a good project is the data accuracy. The data presented in these projects have to be 100% accurate or else the project itself would be useless.

Digital Humanities allows scholars to ask questions about a subject that they normally would’t be able to because of the time constraint, but by doing the research with the use databases and their search options it is easy to find specific or broad information quickly.