Keywords and heartbreak in the Netherlands’ largest war archive
How Lotte Baltussen improved the website with input from hundreds of people
The CABR is an archive containing millions of pages about the special courts established after the Second World War. Thanks to digitisation, people can now search by keywords and names. However, some files evoke strong emotions. That is why the website must be as simple as possible, so that visitors can concentrate on the content and not on how the site works. Lotte Baltussen of the Huygens Institute investigated what people need in order to make optimal use of and understand the digital CABR.
Below, she talks about her user research, in which she spoke to hundreds of people. For her colleagues, she explains her approach step by step in four in-depth blogs.
Image: in the reading room of the National Archives. (The people portrayed did not participate in the user research for the CABR.) Photo: Anne Reitsma, National Archives.
‘Everyone really has only one question: “How bad was it?” For eighty years, people have remained silent, avoided the subject or denied it. Relatives of perpetrators and victims come to the archive in search of answers, with a heavy heart and often on edge. What did grandfather do? What happened to grandmother’s lost sister? Coming to the archive is a difficult step that requires a lot of courage,’ says Lotte Baltussen.
As a specialist in website usability, she spoke to hundreds of people to make the digital CABR as accessible as possible. ‘I heard heart-breaking stories and held many hands. Even in the early stages of the project, it became clear that these intense emotions had to be the starting point for the website design. We cannot determine for people “how bad it was”. What we can do is guide them through the archives in such a way that they find what they want to know as quickly as possible.’
Lotte Baltussen (right) and Lucia Hoenselaars of ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre give a presentation on how people can prepare themselves, both emotionally and in terms of content, for viewing the CABR.
Searching for names of victims and witnesses
The Central Archive for Special Criminal Justice (CABR) contains files on individuals investigated for potential collaboration with the German occupying forces in the years following the Second World War. Thanks to digitisation, which makes millions of pages fully searchable, it is now possible to search the archive by the names of victims, witnesses and keywords, not just suspects and perpetrators. This enables historians and relatives to find out more about the circumstances surrounding certain events.
Providing clarity as quickly as possible
Because of the intense feelings this can evoke, especially among relatives who have lived in uncertainty or ignorance for generations, the website is designed in such a way that you can immediately see the important documents, such as official reports and court rulings, relating to a person under investigation. The so-called “conviction card” (if available) is also displayed at the top, summarising the main points of the investigation into a suspect or convicted person.
Lotte Baltussen: ‘This gives people clarity as quickly as possible about that burning question of how bad it was. I advise people to come to the archive together. You can support each other if the news is sad or painful, and help each other to keep reading, even if there are tears. The interrogation reports sometimes contain exactly the stories that are needed for a better understanding of the case file.’
Photographs are invaluable
Another important element in the web design is the ability to filter all photographs in a file at once. This option was specifically added based on user input. Lotte Baltussen: ‘Last week, I spoke to a man who burst into tears when he saw photos of his father as a young man. He looked very much like him. As hard as that may be, those photos are invaluable. Sometimes files contain the only childhood photos of family members. That’s why we’ve clustered photos with document classification, allowing you to filter them out of a file with a single click.’
Also based on user research, explanations for difficult words and legal terms in the text of documents were implemented.
Technology is essentially a human endeavour
The Huygens Institute is making the CABR digitally accessible on behalf of the National Archives. To this end, the Huygens Institute is collaborating with the Digital Infrastructure of the KNAW. Paper reports, reports and handwritten letters are converted into computer-readable text using special software.
The Huygens Institute specialises in making sensitive historical archives accessible. As Lotte Baltussen says, ‘The most important thing is that people can find their own stories in these old documents. So our technology is essentially a human endeavour. I still visit the archive every week to talk to people. I arrange coffee dates in advance with some of those I have got to know well to discuss their latest CABR findings.’
For colleagues: 4 blogs about user research
Want to know more about Lotte Baltussen’s user research for the digital CABR? Click on the links (Dutch only):
Gebruikersonderzoek meenemen voor de start van een digitaal project
Klaar voor de start: leer je gebruikers en hun wensen kennen
Voorkomen is beter dan repareren: neem de hordes voordat je bouwt
