The Current State of Construction...and Vague Next-Steps
Sometimes, a site goes live even when it's only partially completed. This is often because the information already has some value even if the entire site is not fully built; further, the site itself may require a length of time to fully develop. It may also be that one is building to a live site, and it cannot hurt to have specialist eyes on a project to help it evolve and improve.
Soft and Hard Launches. The early-publishing approach here requires a "soft launch," or a quiet launch that does not bring very many eyes on the resources until it's ready for the "hard launch." Sites have to "iterate" over time in order to acquire more functionalities, contents, and value for its users.
Below is a screenshot of the main landing page for the K-State Department of Entomology Insect Gallery. From there, you may go to the Digital Entomology Lab link to see the site. Allow some time for that site to paint, given the sizes of the insect images.
Currently, some of the insect macro-images are showcased on the Department of Entomology website. (Note: Please go to the "Digital Entomology Lab" link. The first phase has mostly focused on the image captures.) The site itself is a mere archival and delivery system for the imagery. Please allow some time for the page to show.
The navigable iFrame below also contains the Insect Gallery site. There is not a direct URL link to the Digital Entomology Lab.
Now, there are plans underway for exploring what a Phase 2 site may look like. The design will consider a range of issues. You will be asked to participate with that process a little further below.
Some Extant Design Questions
Design Choices and Trade-offs: To give participants a sense of some of the extant design questions, seven basic multiple-choice questions follow. There are no absolutely correct answers, but some responses make more sense for this particular university context. These are shared to provoke some thoughts and conversations more than to point in a "correct" direction for an entomology lab site design. Every design feature will require site development work and the capture and creation of digital contents. Many of the features suggested below are non-trivial.
4. Organizational Structures for the Insect Imagery (By Form)
A digital lab site may provide simple access points (through a user interface) and contents, and the complexity of the learning may then be built into the assignments by the faculty members using the site. Or stand-alone fact sheets may more effectively target the learning. In other words, the site's structure and contents do not have to incorporate all basic learning possibilities or ambitions.
Some Early Digital Entomology Lab Design Ideas
A Functional Diagram: The following diagram highlights some initial ideas of how a new stand-alone site may look, in terms of functionality. This depiction is not about look-and-feel. Rather, it is merely a functional conceptualization. Some highlights:
- The main area would consist of various orders of insects and sample images of insects within those orders (with images from various angles).
- There could be a feature with some unusual morphological features of insects.
- Another area could contain stand-alone insect fact sheets.
- Yet another area could contain downloadable lessons that use the resources of the Digital Entomology Lab.
- Special collections and photo albums of various insects could be offered.
- There would be a text search. If the technologies are sufficiently advanced, there may be a visual search for insects (based on morphological features).
- On the back end of the Digital Entomology Lab, there would be designs for security; site use analytics; the updating and fresh ingestion of the digital contents (with the proper metadata and tagging); contributor account management, multimedia delivery; and so forth.
A Small Comment about Instructional Design: A design consists of a mix of idealism along with the actual technological functionalities. Each additional site function means more developer time and more costs to create the digital contents. The idea is to make this process as efficient as possible.
The actual first draft design (for Phase 2) involves some considerations for the following elements: branding, security, hosting, interface designs (both internal and external), ways to structure information (such as insect typology, which is hierarchical), metadata fields, usability, accessibility, and site interactivity. The initial design also explored possible "use cases" of visitors to the site and ways that their needs would be accommodated. You, as participatory designers,will be asked to contribute ideas both to this close-in design and also some other more ambitious elements.
Some have suggested a Web-based application (Web app) that may be used on mobile devices to capture images to compare against the database of images. Others have suggested creating multimedia pieces--from videos in the field to the sounds of insect chirps and sounds to the pronunciations of the Latin terms for insect taxonomies.
NEXT: Meet the principal investigator (PI) of the grant, and learn about his background in entomology and vision. Dr. C. Michael Smith also offers a desktop-lecture capture as well. (Click "next page" below or the proper page number above.)
