Interfaces and UX

From LinkedGov

The interfaces and UX section overarches the core components of LinkedGov - many of the pages and headers in this section will be found beneath Architecture, but will explain and describe the interface instead of the functionality.

Contents 1 Component(s) of LinkedGov involved 2 Relevant tasks 2.1 Importer 2.2 Gamification Framework 2.3 Standards Setting Interface 3 Google Refine Extension 3.1 Appearance 4 Games 4.1 Appearance 5 Question site 5.1 Appearance 6 Feedback plugin 7 User Profiles 8 User journeys - Importer 9 User journeys - Search 10 Wireframes

Component(s) of LinkedGov involved

1. The menu page
2. The importer (Google Refine extension)
3. The gamification framework
4. The standards setting interface & User management and registration
5. The question site (also called 'developer search')
6. Developer front end - data.linkedgov.org

(Though this section will doubtless inform other parts of LinkedGov.)

Relevant tasks

These open tasks involve this component of LinkedGov:

Importer

• ALPHA001 Rows to column transpose or rotate
• ALPHA002 Date time
• ALPHA003 All text string need to be reviewed
• ALPHA004 Address Postcode
• ALPHA005 Broken data
• ALPHA007 Add menu page

Gamification Framework

• ALPHA009 Game for alpha

Standards Setting Interface

Google Refine Extension

Details about LinkedGov's UI skin for Google Refine can be found here: Google refine extension.

"Google Refine is a power tool for working with messy data, cleaning it up, transforming it from one format into another, extending it with web services, and linking it to databases like Freebase." - http://code.google.com/p/google-refine/

LinkedGov uses it's own "skin" for Google Refine to add to and modify Refine's user interface, so that people who aren't really familiar with data manipulation are more capable and comfortable when cleaning their data. The skin also tries to hide as much technical jargon associated with data by breaking things down into easy-to-understand questions. For example, upon importing their data, a user might be asked, "have the correct number of rows been imported?" or "does your data contain dates?" or "does your data contain measurements?".

These questions then lead the user into simplified cleaning tasks - or "wizards", which combine a number of Refine's core manipulation operations together – turning long and complicated operations into much easier point-and-click operations for the user.

Examples:

• Specifying data types for columns (e.g. measurements - using Freebase and RDF plugin)
• Easily separating and joining columns based on data types (date & time)
• Extracting values from cells based on their types (postcodes & addresses)

The skin includes one other panel which acts as the "second" stage of the import once in Refine. The "labels and descriptions panel" asks the user to examine and label the row and column headers carefully and to also provide them with a small one-line description which get stored in the RDF amongst the formatted data.

Appearance

Menu page (temporarily accessed through Refine's extension folder: http://127.0.0.1:3333/extension/linkedgov/)

The import page

The resume import page

The project page

Games

See ALPHA009_Game_for_alpha.

Appearance

Question site

See question site.

Appearance

TODO.

Feedback plugin

Across the menu page, the Google Refine extension and the game page - a feedback plugin is used to collect feedback from users.

The plugin is created using jQuery UI's dialog feature - which opens up an overlayed form when clicking on the "Feedback" button:

Name and email validation have been implemented.

The feedback data is sent off to...?

User Profiles

Data consumer’s user profiles

User Insight ensures that end-users are placed at the heart of the IA and the development process. High level user profiles have been created based on the data consumer information [[1]] – they provide a visual representation of the types of users likely to interact with the LinkedGov sites – and their specific needs.

User journeys - Importer

User journeys - Search

Data consumer’s user journeys

A user journey is a narrative describing key interactions that users will have with the LinkedGov sites to complete tasks, including information about their goals, motivations, actions and reactions.

Wireframes

These wireframes outline the proposed user experience and usability framework of the LinkedGov sites. It acts as a point of reference from which to iteratively develop these wireframes and specifications. It is expected that this framework and structure will develop as detailed wireframes create new design patterns and further uncover requirements.

1. The importer
2. The question site
3. The developer's search (data.linkedgov.org)