Mapping Experience: Age and Indigeneity as Mediating Factors in Users’ Experiences with the Algonquian Linguistic Atlas

Abstract

To understand how effectively digital maps of Indigenous languages engage a variety of audiences, a mixed-methods user study focused on the experiences of 23 Indigenous and non-Indigenous users aged under and over 30 from a Canadian university as they navigated an online Canadian Indigenous language atlas by completing a series of tasks. An evaluative component assessed the efficacy of the study itself in measuring such experiences. Indigenous participants found the atlas more relevant and useful and focused more on its linguistic content, while non-Indigenous participants focused on the layout and structure of the atlas’s framework. Digital language atlases can better address Canadian Indigenous populations by emphasizing multimodal representations of linguistic content, with easily accessible links to additional resources from the communities represented. While the study did capture multiple dimensions of user experience, low Indigenous participation decreased the efficacy of comparative statistical analyses. Future research can improve Indigenous representation by focusing on recruitment methods that engage and are relevant to Indigenous populations.