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201311searchui
The public facing website will be developed using the same frameworks as the Administration and Metadata editor interfaces.
The frameworks are Angular.js Bootstrap, D3 and OpenLayers 3.
- The basic design will mimic the current HTML5 default design.
- The metadata viewer requires development (can a configuration file be used to provide this view?)
- Make use of OpenLayers 3 for the map viewer. Possibly integrate the SwissTopo new geomap viewer as map view connected to the catalog(?).
- Modular development to ensure people can re-use the building blocks to build custom sites
- Ensure that the search page supports all browsers, only the map page will require IE9+ and other newer browsers
At the Bolsena 14 codesprint we had some discussions on the direction of development of the search UI. Below is an abstract of some of that discussions and research:
Before making a design, we should agree on certain pre-requisites, like what audiences are we serving which visit the catalogue with what purpose
Audience The challenge with definition of the audience is that we have to satisfy both the customer (usually a formal official in a governmental geo department), the professional user and the general public accessing the portal. This diverse audience mostly challenges the UI design. An option is to work with simple/advanced tabs or create separate UI’s for different audiences.
Purpose of a visit to geonetwork
- When looking for information in google happen to find a geonetwork resource
- Looking for (spatial) data and directly want to visualize (and combine)
- Looking for a spatial dataset to open in a desktop application
- Looking for contact information on spatial data and maybe report an issue
- Users wanting to contribute to an SDI by adding data, discuss, improve
Aspects to consider
Map centered approach vs Text centered vs both
Users arriving from google want to arrive on a text page describing the resource, but also should be aware that they now are in a portal application, so they are able to use portal functionality like “view on map”. Some users have a need for textual representation before they go to a map. Text representation of metadata is usually faster to load. Prominent text representation is usually better indexed by search engines. Since geonetwork is a spatial catalogue we should distinguish from the open data portals and centralize the map. Some users are visually oriented. Professional users wanting to combine data in a portal prefer the map centered approach, as it works more efficiently.
Focus on data vs metadata
As Geonetwork we tend to focus on metadata about a product (the data) like a webstore does. However in Other Portals the focus is on data and the metadata is mostly used to search (like YouTube). When focusing on data, the portal should have visualization options like Table display, Graph display and Map display. Which can be extended to filter, join, georeferencing options as well as search options within the data itself.
Community vs Authoritative
Geonetwork is being used as an authoritative catalogue of authoritative datasets, but could also be used as a community portal around a set of datasets. In an authoritative setting a user can send an issue related to a dataset at most. In a community setting any user can discuss, add or even improve metadata in the catalogue. A nice feature in a community setting is the ability to have certain users create views or mapcontexts (WMC) on datasets and register that view back into the catalogue.
Some examples of other Catalogue UI’s
The text approach
The open knowledge foundation created a popular catalogue for open data. Some geospatial features are introduced. http://demo.ckan.org. The text centered application is popular at governments.
The map centered approach
http://opengeoportal.org is a catalogue targeting a scientific audience.
The Dual Approach
Swisstopo decided to introduce two portals, one for text centered searches (http://geocat.ch) and one for map centered searches (http://map.geo.admin.ch).
The Netherlands have a similar approach. They have a text centered at http://nationaalgeoregister.nl and a map centered portal at http://pdokviewer.pdok.nl.
The hybrid approach
Vlaanderen has both a catalogue (http://www.geopunt.be/catalogus) and a mapviewer (http://www.geopunt.be/kaart). However this portal has an integration between the two components (catalogue results can be added to the mapviewer).
In the recent Geonetwork Html5ui a designer has looked at the UI challenges and introduced the design as implemented. The map is always present, but the website is mostly text centered.
The community approach
http://geocommons.org is an esri community site where people can upload data and create a visualization of it.
http://geonode.org is portal software for collaboration on data around authoritative datasets. Users can create maps and share them with others.
The Data approach
http://opendata.socrata.org is an open data portal application that enables searching for data. Filter it and create a visualization (either map or graph). The visualization can be stored for others to use.
http://cartodb.com is a portal application with advanced visualization options for uploaded datasets
Other examples
If you have some comments, start a discussion, raise an issue or use one of our other communication channels to talk to us.