Archive Search Engine

From Internal to Public

While the initial hurtle for the City Archive of Esbjerg (Esbjerg Byhistoriske Arkiv) revolved around their internal data navigation, the public archives also lacked a more intuitive and modern user interface. This led to an extension of the collaboration between Intertisement and the City Archive of Esbjerg with the goal of optimizing the user experience for individuals seeking to explore the history of the town and its citizens.

Highly accessible Web-based Solution

The Archive Search Engine is a web-based system designed to be highly accessible so that users with various sorts of reading impairment may also make use of the application. The search engine accessibility is measured against the WCAG 2.1 standards established as requirement for all public sector websites in EU and the United Kingdom. As an example the application is designed to be parsed by all major screen readers, thus allowing both dyslexic and users with visual impairments to effectively make use of the site through use of tabbing navigation.

Advanced Search & Filtering

The “General Search” or smart search is developed to allow users with no knowledge of the comprehensive data structure of the city archives to easily navigate and find the information that they are seeking, while also catering to the more advanced users through the use of database filtering and advanced field specific search queries.

Database Navigation

The application also allows more traditional data retrieval through the database navigator, which allows advanced users to preview individual sources as tables. When using the smart search, users may also access the source of their search results, which will open the source database with the entry highlighted.