AstroGrid Desktop Suite: Release 2008 : Web Page Design

There are four site separate sites planned :

www.astrogrid.org for the end-user : now implemented at http://www.astrogrid.org

project.astrogrid.org for public information and project documentation : now under design at ProjectWebDesign

deployer.astrogrid.org for deployers : under development

developer.astrogrid,org for developers : under development

Below are the general design notes; detailed design notes for www.astrogrid.org, and links to design docs for same.

Intro Notes

These pages are for the design of the web pages connected with the April 2008 release (VODesktop). The overall top level design pages are at Release2008TopLevelDesign, culminating in a final Design held in a single document held at that page. Here the aim is to drill one level down and complete an overall design for the public web pages, which will then be drafted on the Trac system. As with Top Level issues, the idea is that a small team is responsible for the design, but everybody can read and comment as we go along.

• Web-design-2008-02-24.pdf: Draft Web Design Doc 2008-02-24

• Web-design-sketches-2008-02-24.pdf: sketches to go with web design doc 2008-02-24

Design Team

Same as Top Level Design : Andy Lawrence, Nic Walton, Keith Noddle.

Note that only the Design Team will edit this page - rest of team should use the Web Design Comments Page

Basic Concepts / Web Site structure

The basic concepts of the VODesktop release are described at Release2008TopLevelDesign. The concepts behind the website structure are described in two documents by Keith linked at Release2008KeithBits, and finalised in the Top Level Design Document linked at Release2008TopLevelDesign. To separate basic user types, we have a number of separate web sites :

www.astrogrid.org is the general home page, and standard science end-user starting point. Has the VO Desktop installation links, the help pages, support pages, and general information about using AstroGrid to do astronomy. In the future it can also have "community" type pages eg forum, library of user scripts, etc.

project.astrogrid.org has public information about the project, contacts list, broad plans, publicly available meeting minutes, project calendar.

deployer.astrogrid.org has general information about deploying astrogrid components at data centres and departments, links to infrastructure software components, and related technical documentation.

developer.astrogrid.org has general information about developing software that interoperates with AstroGrid, for both client side and server side; links to the software; related technical documentation. There will probably be a separate site for each service component, as described in Keith's doc.

wiki.astrogrid.org is for internal project use (including interaction with other VO projects), as a kind of semi-structured scratch space and ideas development arena (i.e. pretty much as now). It is not linked from any of the other sites, as it is intended to be private.

Trac Note : Project members should avoid using the trac wiki as a wiki in the above sense; it is just a mechanism for easy development and evolution of the public pages, which to the external user should look stable, simple, and friendly. The word "wiki" should be avoided in the public pages.

These pages are primarily aimed at the science end-user pages.

User Types

1. science end user
2. deployer
3. developer
4. member of public seeking information
5. project team member

The overall home page (www.astrogrid.org) should be designed to be a sensible home page for user-type-1, but should also be a reasonable starting point for the other types, until they have bookmarked what they want.

Note that type 4 is actually a bundle of different types - amateur astronomers, committee members, e-scientists from other fields, journalists. We need a design that gives reasonable info to all these.

User Stories

We should check the design works for all these stories. Lets work backwards through the types.

- Project member finding general info. Wants project calendar, minutes of meetings, etc. Will have bookmarked project.astrogrid.org.

- Project member working collaboratively. Will have bookmarked wiki.astrogrid.org

- Member of "public" has heard of Astrogrid and wants to find what it is. Not interested in the software itself. Wants very quick info, and only drills down if interest piqued. Will find www.astrogrid.org. Need very brief explanation on home page; and easily identifiable "find out more about the project" link. Project.astrogrid.org needs public-friendly information and pretty pictures.

- Potential Deployer or Developer has heard about AstroGrid and wonders if is relevant. Will probably find www.astrogrid.org, but from Google may find developer.astrogrid.org straight away, so this has to be self contained. Suggest from home page send straight to relevant site : don't try to make "public" info paragraph above cover these people as well.

- Experienced Deployer or Developer : will have bookmarked the correct site.

- Potential science user. Finds www.astrogrid.org. Has to have right look and feel to be "science home page". Needs some very brief information on home page to see "is this right for me". Probably long enough to be a separate page - but is not part of the documentation tree. This is a one-off need. There is enough going on on the home page that it should not also be the "install" page : but this needs to be clearly linked from home page; and again from the "intro to VODesktop" page.

- Ready to start science user. Has read the intro and wants to give it a go. Clicks thru to "install" page. Installation needs to be automatic and easy for VODesktop itself. Will also think "have I got everything I need ?" so we need brief words about checking you have JRE etc. Installing the other VO tools needs user to go the relevant web page; but on the install page we need a couple of sentences about each.

- Science user in exploration mode. Needs easily browsable doc pages. Must be logically structured, and easy to navigate. Needs to know where she is : breadcrumb. Needs to jump to desired section : sidebar. Too complex to have simple section list : need hierarchy. However too many levels is hard to follow, and hard to represent graphically. Three layers is probably best choice.

- Science user looking for documentation in context, e.g. has just launched Task Runner. Wants to jump straight to right place : always starting at top of tree is annoying. However, fine-grained jump-in places is a bad idea : too much work, and forced to make doc structure exactly match menus etc. Probably right compromise is each application and tool component within VODesktop offers Help:AstroGrid Desktop and Help:TaskRunner etc.

- User wants to look through section titles and jump to one that looks right. Wants to skim over top level titles easily but also drill down to deepest level. So sidebar tree needs to be expandable AND collapsible. Sections, sub-sections, and sub-sub-sections need to be clearly and immediately distinguishable : font size and/or colour and/or indent.

- User is reading doc section and encounters reference to completely different section : sent there straight away with hyperspace link. Breadcrumb and sidebar-tree must adjust appropriately.

- User has been jumping about and gotten lost. Breadcrumb and tree must be correct; but also current section should be highlighted in sidebar-tree.

- Science user hitting problem. To fit with decisions in top-level design, should always be sent first to "support" page, rather than for example straight to "report bug" etc. (Support page has FAQs, ticket system, link back to docs pags, email address). Option "get support" needs to be visible on all pages. Application Help menu item should include "get support" which likewise goes to this page.

Suggested web page hierarchy

Home area

home = www.astrogrid.org

• links to download area
• links to other ag sites (project, deployer, developer)
• link to help area
• link to support area
• general words about what AG is : for public and sci-users, not for tech-users
• link to an "about the VO" page

Does NOT have help section sidebar (help is self contained concept) but does have breadcrumb (You are here : home)

home/about-the-VO

• one page with VO concepts
• links to other projects

Download area

home/download

• short words on "what do I need ?" and link to more words
• buttons for immediate download and install : VODesktop, Topcat
• link to install-help pages for AG-Python, AG-Taverna
• links back to home, support, help
• simple links to various other VO tools

home/download/what-do-I-need *explanatory words and links to JRE etc

home/download/AG-Python-install

• Explanatory words
• link to Eddie's Google code page
• link to correct section of help pages

home/download/AG-Taverna-install

• Explanatory words
• link to sourceforge page for Taverna
• explanation of how to get plugins ??
• link to correct section of help pages

Help area

home/help

• self contained but links back to home
• links to support
• has sidebar with main help sections
• main area has a very general introduction

main help sections ... Nic and other sci's to fill in .. but something like

home/help/VO Desktop intro home/help/VO Explorer home/help/Astroscope home/help/Task Runner etc home/help/Topcat home/help/AG-Taverna home/help/AG-Python home/help/useage-examples home/help/Glossary

Some of these have sub-sections; but should avoid sub-sub-sections. Then at all points sidebar has all the main section choices, with the current one highlighted

• help-top
• VODesktop Intro
• VO Explorer
• ASTROSCOPE
• Task Runner
• etc...

and perhaps at the top is

• the breadcrumb
• a tab bar with the sub-sections available in the highlighted section ???

Support area

home/support

• self contained but links back to home
• link to help, FAQ, ticket launch
• explanatory words; email address if all else fails

home/support/FAQ

• one page with anchored sections
• some sort of index ? (avoid repeatedly scrolling back to top)

..maybe a tiddlywiki file ...see below

home/support/tickets Trac ticket system

Navigation features

So.. it sounds like :

Always there : breadcrumb (names as above)

Always there : main area choices across top (Home, Download, Help, Support)

Sidebar : only there when in Help area, then has main help sections

Submit/View tickets button : only there when in Support area

Frequently Asked Questions

Here is a funny wee experiment : try clicking this page at ROE

Schedule

• The top level design is complete
• Beta testers are already using the beta software, using the temporary beta web pages
• Web Page design should be roughly agreed mid-Feb
• A "Critical Service Review" is scheduled for March 3rd : draft web pages by then
• Public release is scheduled for March 31st

Links

• Web Design Comments Page : Free form wiki page - edit comments in here
• Top Level Design Pages
• Notes meeting on support processes at consortium meeting 2007 Dec 15th
• Notes from support team meeting in Cambridge 2008 Jan 16th
• Notes from documentation meeting in Cambridge 2007 Nov 27th
• Notes from documentation meeting in Cambridge 2008 Feb 5th
• VO Explorer Science design pages : see also DesktopAstroGridSnapshots

-- AndyLawrence - 04 Feb 2008