Graphic User Interface Design

Darren (the Web System Developer) and I have been working on the design of a Graphic User Interface (GUI) the past two weeks. The main aim is to satisfy two different requirements: on the one hand a simple and sleek interface is called for, in order to keep up with contemporary standards and make the user's interaction with the front-end part of the platform as easy as possible. On the other hand, there is a demand for a complex query system that will give the user the option of selecting the models to be generated by defining an extensive set of parameters. These can be said to generally consist of three categories of different conceptual layer controls: object control layers, history layers, and visualisation layers. At the same time, there is a requirement of a log of the generated models, and a combination of these.

An attempt to tackle this issues was presented at the meeting on the 14^th of January. This was based on a tree structure for the object control layers, with a separate pane for the visualisation layers, to be turned on and off on demand. Other subjects, like the knowledge bank and the models log were addressed in separate panes. This GUI was seen as too complex and visually unattractive by the rest of the team and was rejected.

A new design is being tested and will be presented on the project team soon. This is based on a two-tier system: a simple, intuitive system for basic selections, and a panel that is called on demand for the complex queries. It has been tested on various use cases and seems to be responding fine so far.

XML Schema Architecture

Parallel to the GUI design, I have been working on the XML schema. The final, official schema will not be produced for some time, as it will obviously have to be subject to many changes. However, the XML architecture has to be realized in order to store the metadata, and allow the X3D files to be referenced through it. A first draft of a possible XML standard was produced based on the original GUI. However, this has to be changed as additional visualisation and object controls are added. There is progress though, in that the main requirements regarding the tie-ins and the referencing process between the XMLs and the X3Ds has been pretty much clarified.