A BIODIVERSITY COLLECTION ACCESS SERVICE FOR EUROPE

WP 6 – User interface design and implementation

Deliverable 29

Final user interface specification

Anna Gadré Régine Vignes Lebbe

UNIVERSITÉ PIERRE ET MARIE CURIE (PARIS 6)

19 December 2003

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CONTENTS 1

OBJECTIVE ........................................................................................................ 4

2

GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS............................................................................ 4

2.1

Wildcards ...................................................................................................................... 4

2.2

Case sensivity ................................................................................................................ 4

3 3.1

COLLECTION METADATA SEARCH ................................................................ 4 Basic search screen....................................................................................................... 4

3.2 Advanced search screen organisation ........................................................................ 5 3.2.1 Organisation section............................................................................................... 6 3.2.2 Collection ............................................................................................................... 6 3.2.3 Localisation ............................................................................................................ 7 3.2.4 Associated persons ................................................................................................. 7 3.2.5 Collection coverage................................................................................................ 7 3.2.6 Form submission .................................................................................................... 8 3.3

Browse ........................................................................................................................... 8

3.4

Statistics......................................................................................................................... 9

3.5

Result ........................................................................................................................... 10

3.6

Query extension .......................................................................................................... 13

3.7

Reports x xxx .............................................................................................................. 13

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UNIT LEVEL DATA........................................................................................... 14

4.1

Organisation ............................................................................................................... 14

4.2

Basic search screen..................................................................................................... 14

4.3

Databases..................................................................................................................... 15

4.4

General information................................................................................................... 15

4.5

Taxonomic information ............................................................................................. 16

4.6

Gathering site.............................................................................................................. 17

4.7

Collect circumstances................................................................................................. 18

4.8

Unit level data result .................................................................................................. 19

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4.9

Accessibility................................................................................................................. 22

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HELP SECTION ................................................................................................ 22

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DATA QUALITY PROBLEMS .......................................................................... 22

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1 Objective The purpose of this document is the description of the specification of UI and a proposal for reorganising the existing UI mockup screens taking into account the results of the questionnaire prepared in collaboration with the User Panel workpackage.

2 General specifications 2.1 Wildcards UI uses implicit wildcards placed at the end of any search string. Thus, searching for Grenoble is equivalent to searching for Grenoble%. As data from CORM has often a form of concatenated strings (ex Grenoble cedex or a name + accronym) this method will permit to find the records corresponding to the query even if database fields accidentally contain additional information due to some errors of data capture. The UI supports explicit wildcards: the symbol “%” can be placed at the start or in the middle of any search string. It replaces one or more of characters of a keyword.

2.2 Case sensitivity All searches are case-insensitive. That means that the search engine will disregard whether letters are uppercase or lowercase.

3 Collection metadata search 3.1 Basic search screen This screen is intended for those users who directly want to access specific information which is a precise record: collection, organisation or network, similar to the research in the annual phonebook. In the questionnaires users indicated the following categories to be added to basic search. • Taxonomic group • Collection type • Persons (curator or collector) • Time periods (paleo or modern) • Geographic locations The proposed list contains multiple topics, too many for basic search which is the simplest search that a user can conduct; the search for a single keyword or just a few keywords. In consequence of this complexity, we proposed a simplified screen containing only one text field for Search by Name of Organisation, Network or Collection.

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Fig. 1 Basic search screen

3.2 Advanced search screen organisation The Advanced search screen was considered as too complex and too long. Users proposed to organise it into expandable items or tabbed options. We opted for a more compact screen organisation with the information grouped logically, to allow to see a maximum number of items on the same page without scrolling. We optimised the arrangement of elements of the form and we selected colors and police fonts to differentiate the sections and used it as the reference marks. We tried out the use of the graphic icons. A pictographic language is really attractive, but should be commonly understood, immediate, and unambiguous. Some concepts from theBioCASE query, for exemple geographic coverage, are easily mapped to the icon (example: the planet icon for “Geographic coverage” section), but others like “Taxonomic Scientific name” or “Taxonomic Common name” are equivocal. For these reasons the icons are removed and not used. Previous proposition of the GUI specification provided to use multiple operators to combine different query criteria, separated operator AND or OR for every section. The new proposition is to simplify it, using the one common operator for all query criteria. The AND operator becomes the default Boolean operator. More clear captions should be provided which will tell the person completing the form.

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Fig. 2 Advanced search screen

3.2.1 Organisation section We determined that the CORM database contains few network records (less than 10) and some of them are the duplication of Organisation records. The criterium Network name does not contain any specific attributes, so it can be easily integrated to the Organisation section and combined with Organisation name field. The section Network and Organisation were combined into Organisation section. It permits to simplify the screen and reduces the number of displayed elements. The user can type researched name or browse an alphabetical list. An additional criterium is organisation type. It can be selected from a checkbox list. 3.2.2 Collection This section is collection related. The following criteria can be precised: -collection name (text field or alphabetic list) -class of collection (list of checkboxes) -object collected -information about types ( a radio button to indicate if researched collection should contain type specimen)

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3.2.3 Localisation This section is destinated to delimit the criteria related to the address. Two criteria are taken into account: selecting a country from the checkboxes list or from the Europe map, and typing in directly a town or selecting it from the alphabetic list. 3.2.4 Associated persons This section permits to type in the field a name of the contact person related to the collection, the name of this person can be also selected from the alphabetical list. 3.2.5 Collection coverage This last division is devoted to keywords associated to collection coverage. The fourth kind of keywords can be specified: - taxon coverage keywords - common name coverage keywords - geospacial coverage keywords - timeperiod coverage keywords The keywords can by typed in the text box or selected from the graphic list. The list takes the form of a tree (taxonomic or geographic keywords) or a stratigraphic scale.

Fig. 3 Taxonomic tree

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Fig. 4 Stratigraphic scale

3.2.6 Form submission The bottom form of the screen is devoted to the complete display of the query, the selection of the Boolean operator and the number of result records to be displayed per page.

3.3 Browse The majority of users’ answers concerning the utility of the Browse search mode confirmed that this way of searching is useful. We will maintain this functionality. Actually, the main list of topics to be browsed contain the following subjects: • Networks • Organisation • Collections • Persons • Localization • Coverage in time period • Coverage of scientific name • Coverage of common name • Coverage of geographic name • Clicking on the selected topic can give a full list of detailed records (ex: alphabethical list of Person names) or a more precised topics list (ex: list of towns and regions for the selected country). A final product of search is the detailed description of the selected record with all

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available information from the database. Some elements of this description are clickable and permit pursuing the search in the Browse mode.

Fig. 5 Browse screen

3.4 Statistics The tool developed in LIS laboratory permits dynamically to generate graphs of descriptive statistics for the Biocase database. This tool uses GD which is C/ Python API and high performance library for chart/graph generation in PNG or JPEG format. Many graph types can be realised as curves, bar graphs, subdivided bar graphs or pie graphs. It is possible to add some hyper links to elements of the chart. We propose also a presentation of statistics on the map. The different colours on the map show spatial distribution (see document D30).

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Fig. 6 Example of statistical summary using chart-pie.

3.5 Result The database CORM contains three types of records: network record, organization record and collection record. After submission of the query the user obtains a result synopsis with the distribution of these three types of records, illustrated with a graphic chart pie. The summary list can be visualized and the user can access the details of one or more records (the user can select the items by checking it in the table). The elements from the summary list are displayed with 3 attributes: name, town and country. After selection of items, the next step is the specification of fields to be displayed. The aim is to allow the user to select the information fields that interest him and to obtain a detailed description of one or more selected networks /organizations/ collections.

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Fig. 7 Result summary

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Fig. 8 Result presentation

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Fig. 9 Detailed description of a dataset

3.6 Query extension If the results are not satisfactory (no or few records found) the UI offers the option of the consultation of the index database. The result is displayed in the same manner as in the case of a CORM database query. To obtain more of the result records, the user can choose the option of query extension. After clicking the button, the UI connects to the Thesaurus and retrieves a list of synonyms of the term of the user query. The list is presented in the form of a checkbox list and the user can select the terms to be added to the query list. That increases the chance to obtain the more complete results. This functionnality will be activated when the API of Thesaurus access will provide more performant functions for matching the synonyms for the term.

3.7 Reports x xxx The majority of users opted rather for comma delimited text than proposed PDF format. PDF format is universal standard but is not editable. Users proposed among others RTF format which in its native version has a specification and which is readable with the majority of the software of the edition. After reflection we decided to use for printable report a rough text (.txt) and printable HTML which guarantees to report recipient a complete accessibility, independently of the software, operating system and machine on which he works. The HTML is a very flexible, rich and compact universal format.

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The HTML page will contain a complete list of records with all detailed information; a comma delimited file will contain a contact information, useful and flexible for incorporation into mailing lists.

4 Unit level data 4.1 Organisation The number of criteria of the query of unit level data is higher than in the case of Collection Level, thus it is impossible to locate all input elementsof the form on one page appropriated for the screen size. We choose instead the thematic tabsheets grouped into four sections: -General information -Taxonomic information -Gathering site -Collect circumstances

4.2 Basic search screen Users indicated that it can be usefull to create an additionnal screen for Basic search of Unit Level data. This screen will contain a simple text field to search for Taxonomic name

Fig. 6 Basic search screen

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4.3 Databases The section concerning the provider metadata was reduced to the checkbox list containing the names of databases. The user can decide to search in all databases or make some selection.

Fig. 7 Provider database selection

4.4 General information The general information screen contains a form with the following search criteria: -accession number -information about the type -chronological age

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Fig. 8 General information screen

4.5 Taxonomic information This screen contains two sub-sections: common name and scientific name. The research can be carried out with a criterium of higher taxon or full name (one or more names).

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Fig. 9 Taxonomic information screen

4.6 Gathering site In this section the user can precise some information concerning the gathering site. •

Subdivision localisation invites the user to specify a character of the gathering site: terrestrial or aquatic.In the first case it is possible to select a country (a list) and precise a locality. In the second case the user can precise a type of aquatic habitat (ocean, river, sea, like), its name and deep range. subdivision related to the geographic coordinates.

• • The comments from the User Panel meeting confirm that the decimal coordonates should be used for the searches using GIS coordinates. The user precises a point which would be a central point of a rectangular zone calculated by UI. (the length of axe: 10 km) The text fields are provided also for altitude specification.

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Fig. 10 Gathering site screen

4.7 Collect circumstances This screen permits to assign one or more of collectors names and the range of collect date (year and month).

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Fig. 11 Collect circumstances screen

4.8 Unit level data result After a submission of the query the result screen is displayed. The user has the possibility to browse all returned records or filter them by provider or by taxon. Then one reaches the synopsis of the result presented in the shape of a table containing the information about Organisation, Provider, Taxon name, Gathering country, Type and Accession N°. One or more records can be selected to obtain detailed information which is composed of all availabled data retrievied from XML file. We will add a functionnality for printing report in text format. The result can also be sent by mail – the format choosen by users is text.

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Fig. 12 Result summary

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Fig. 13 Result summary

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Fig. 14 Detailed result

4.9 Accessibility The final version should be conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT) published by W3C and it will be tested with the Tidy software (http://tidy.sourceforge.net.) with the goal to detect HTML errors. The final version will be tested with different browsers available.

5 Help section This main section will provide a detailed user interface description (User manual), query examples and information about the project in the form of a series of hyperlinked pages.

6 Data quality problems During the development we detected many problems due to the CORM data quality. The user interface is the system which helps users to communicate with the application system. Reducing the number of input errors will improve the resulting data quality and eliminate unnecessary data entry. Using the thesaurus could help to manage misspelling queries but not...misspelled data in database! The major problems signalised to the BioCase coordinator are: -duplicated data - misspelled data -data stored in the incorrect field of database (ex: information about country in “town” field, a telephone number done as geographic keyword)

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-not structured data (ex: accronyms are sometimes added to full name, sometimes not) -missing data (ex: country name without ISO identifier) -incorrect data (ex: URL not existing)

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