Design - Single UI Project

Overview

DSpace will standardize on a single, out-of-the-box User Interface.  While third parties are still welcome to develop and distribute alternative interfaces, only one will be distributed with DSpace.

As both the XMLUI and JSPUI are aging, this is an opportunity for supporters of each of these UIs to collaborate on a common UI platform.

Use Cases / Notes

• End User Use Cases
• Admin UI Use Cases
• DSpace UI Prototype Challenge
  
  • Prototyping a Future UI (superseded/replaced by Prototype Challenge)
  • Brainstorms on a Future UI (includes some notes on possible platforms for a UI)
• DSpace Functionality Mapping (Google Spreadsheet, begun by Claire Knowles and Kim Shepherd)

Planning Phase - Selecting a Platform

Timeframe: 3rd and 4th Quarters of 2015. The UI platform will be selected before the end of 2015.

• [August] Establish a DSpace UI Working Group, which will manage the process of establishing prototypes and helping us select a UI platform
• [September] Establish UI piloting process / guidelines: see DSpace UI Prototype Challenge and announcement to all mailing lists
• [September - November] : DSpace UI Prototype Challenge - Announce and run the Prototyping Challenge to test out a variety of UI platforms (ideally some non-Java and some Java-based)
  
  • Each prototype much be kept transparent and public(on GitHub)
  • Prototypes due by November 6
  • Signup and full guidelines are at DSpace UI Prototype Challenge
• [November]  : The prototypes, their code, and initial notes/analysis will be made publicly available for community-wide feedback. See signup at DSpace UI Prototype Challenge
  
  • Reviewed more formally by DSpace UI Working Group based on the DSpace UI Criteria
• [December] : A single UI platform will be selected from feedback and analysis of prototypes
  
  • The selection should be approved by Committers
  • The selection should be approved by DCAT
  • The selection must be approved by Steering Group
  • The selection must be approved by Leadership Group

Design Phase - User Experience

Timeframe: Kicking off early in the Development Phase (2016). Because of tight timelines for all this UI work, a full UX redesign may not be possible in the initial version of the new DSpace UI. But, the hope would be to at least do minor cleanup / rework of any UI tools that desperately need it. The new UI itself could be based on existing themes that already provide a better user experience (e.g. Mirage 2, new JSPUI).

• Find a (part-time?) user experience (UX) designer/expert to create mockups/wireframes (using Balsamiq Mockups or similar) of the new DSpace UI experience
  • Initially this UX design work may concentrate on specific areas that are known to be problematic in DSpace (e.g. Admin tools).
  • This work should involve analyzing examples of good user experience design (in both repository platforms and on the web in general), and finding ways to potentially apply them to the DSpace user experience.
    
  • Depending on available funds, this person may need to be a volunteer or donated from an institution
    

Development Phase - Building the UI

Timeframe: Organized development begins in January 2016, and continues until 7.0 Release in late 2016.

• [December 2015] : Establish a development team (ideally with some overlap with the planning phase team). This team will likely consist of volunteer or "donated" development resources
  
• [January 2016] : Schedule a series of development "sprints" which will begin in early 2016. This will allow institutions to donate developers for specific sprints (or allow developers to balance local work with sprint work)
  
  • Ideally, hold a "hackathon" to help kickstart some of these sprints and get everyone on the same page
  • Development process will be kept transparent (on GitHub) with ongoing status reports to Committers, etc.
    
  • Ongoing "beta" or early releases will be made available for testing/feedback/analysis by developers and/or DCAT members
• [June 2016] : Early / Beta version of the new UI is presented at the OR2016 conference in Dublin. Ideally, we'd not only have a demo, but also a training session on the new UI.
  
• [Late 2016] : Fully functional new UI in place for the DSpace 7.0 release (tentatively scheduled for Late 2016).