Web Design
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Web Design
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This document is a stop on the
Artemis Project web design tour.
You're welcome to board the tour bus for the next stop. |
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Presentation of the Artemis Project's World Wide Web site is the major concern of this document; however since the data files to be used on WWW are part of the overall on-line presence of the Artemis Project, the scope of discussion here includes other uses of the ASI domain on the Internet.
The primary criteria for design of the Artemis Project Internet sites are:
When someone first visits the site, we want to show what the project is all about, and get the visitor excited about the Artemis Project. Think of it as a training session. Instead of lumping it all together in a mass of entangled organizations and new ideas, we present it logically. The site is arranged into major subject areas:
Artemis Project
Main Entrance
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Artemis Project Artemis Society Sponsors
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Artemis Organization Sponsor
Data Book Information Information
The character of this page is tutorial and navigation. It gives a very brief description of what the project is about and links to the other major subject areas.
The character of these pages is tutorial and entertainment. Here we find the reference mission, the money story, and news about the Artemis Project and the Lunar Base Development Fund. If we have nifty little program on line, such as one that shows what the Earth looks like from the proposed landing sites, they go here. Descriptions of the promise of the future -- long-range space development -- go here.
We don't talk about the Artemis Society or The Lunar Resources Company here, except where we provide appropriate links for more in-depth information and how to get involved.
The character of these pages is organizational and informational. These pages include the organizational structure, membership directory, techical committees, project teams, local chapters, Artemis Society International headquarters information, and all the other administrative information needed to operate the Society.
The character of these pages is corporate and commercial. The information is a list of Artemis Project sponsors and links to these companies' web sites.
Present an overview of the project. The information presented here is designed to:
The web site should be laid out in a series of short pages, each page presenting a major concept and advancing the plot. Only the raw information pages such as personnel listings should be lengthy blocks of text.
All tutorial pages are presented using a graphical banner depicting the small image of the Artemis Project half-moon logo. Avoid use of embellishing graphics in the Artemis Data Book, since these pages will be loaded frequently by people contributing to the project.
At the bottom of each page is a navigation bar with links to the main Artemis Project index, the catalog, etc. The navbar also includes links to the previous page.
WWW pages should be designed in general for an effective presentation of the information in text form, using graphics where necessary to illustrate the story we're telling. Use a white background in the body of the document unless a specific set of web pages are designed to use other colors for their entertainment effect.
Don't use background graphics unless the specific page requires it for entertainment effect.
Always provide a text alternative to images.
Graphics are cool and really impress some folks, but until everybody is communicating with the net faster than 28.8, we should show some sympathy for modem users.
Consistently applied conventions for naming files will make it much easier to maintain the web site, especially as we expand the responsiblity for various parts of it to include people all over the world.
All directory and file names use lowercase exclusively; no uppercase allowed. This makes it easier for many people to work on maintaining and updating the site.
Image and information files will be named according to their index numbers in the Artemis Project Imagery library. Documents will be named according to their document numbers in the Artemis Project Documentation Library. This makes filenames a bit unintelligible by themselves, but with library indices will make it far easier to keep the documents organized in the long run.
Electronic image files are stored on line in a common /images directory. The file names reflect the image numbers like this:
asi199500043.gif -- the original image asi199500043r01.gif -- a revision replacing the orginal asi199500043r01.jpg -- exact same image, different file format
. . . where . . .
asi = designation for Artemis Society International
1995 = year the image was created
00043 = 5-digit serial number
r01 = indicates a revision serial number
.gif = file format
The first time an image is stored, do not include the revision number in the file name. Documents referencing an image will be coded to link to the basic file name, without a revision number.
If the image is revised, the revised image will replace the original image in all documents which reference that image, according to the following steps:
Note that any variation on an image, whether it is cropped, resized, has color changes, or contains changes to the original image modified, counts as a revision. Presentation of exactly the same image in different formats as gif, jpeg, or whatever, does not count as a revision.
Allowable formats for files are:
We will add to this list with future updates as required.
9 Jan 1996 Note: I changed the convention for the ".ps" extension to mean a Postscript document rather than an Adobe Photoshop document because this seems to be the convention I've encountered in all the NASA web pages. We don't have any Photoshop documents in the library yet anyway; but it's likely we'll eventually have to add filenaming convention for Photoshop, too.
Time-dependent files have dates appended to their file names in the form YYYYMMDD (that's year, month, day). This forces them to be sorted in date order in a directory listing.
{ TBD: There's probably a lot more to say about file names. }
Like the image library, the document library consists of serially numbered documents. The standard for document numbers is "ASI cyynnnnrxx", where c is an organizaiton code, yy is the near, nnnn is a four-digit serial number assigned by the library, and rxx is a two-digit integer revision number.
Note that each html file is itself an ASI document, and should have its document number noted in a comment at the top of the document.
Filenames for documents are simply the document number with the appropriate extension added. A hypen replaces the space in the document number:
asi-a950001r00.txt
To reference a library document in an html script, use a file name without a revision letter (a950001.txt). That file is a link which points the latest revision to the document. This avoids having to rewrite other scripts each time a document is changed; you only have to store the new rev of the document and update the link to that file. All html scripts which reference the document will automatically follow the link to the updated file.
All information on the ASI site is organized into subdirectories to make it easier for many people to work on updating the information. This also allows for easily switching to a major update by switching links in the main index pages.
Breaking out information into many subdirectories allows for access control on a topic-by-topic basis. This accommodates having many people adding files while reducing opportunities for blunders and mischief.
Here's the basic directory tree. Most of the information is stored in the Artemis Data Book's massive directory structure, but there are a few common library areas and other places that don't fit within the Artemis Data Book.
In all cases, "/" is the home directory for the web site. This directory tree includes areas used for information exchange and libraries in addition to the World Wide Web files.
/ -- main entry point
/adb -- Artemis Data Book
/adb/01/... -- Artemis Data Book sections
/artemis-list -- archive of listserver messages
/asi -- Artemis Society Top Index
/asi/board -- Private area for Artemis Society BoD
/asi/docs -- Artemis Society documentation library
/asi/tc -- Artemis Society Technical Committees
/asi/tc/prop -- Propulsion Sytems Technical Committee
/asi/tc/sim -- Simulation Technical Committee
/asi/hq -- ASI Headquarters
/asi/policy -- Artemis Society official policies
/asi/pt -- Artemis Society Project Teams
/asi/pt/hab -- Lunar Base Habitat Project Team
/asi/pt/ltv -- Lunar Transfer Vehicle Project Team
/bio -- biographies of key personnel
/disc -- discussion group archives (such as GEnie)
/forms -- response forms
/images -- Artemis Project Imagery Library
/infoex -- Information Exchange directory (pass-through area)
/mov -- movie library
/newgroups -- newsgroup discussion archives
/snd -- sound files (might as well plan ahead)
/sponsors -- Sponsorship information and sponsor index
/sw -- computer software library
/news -- Artemis Project news and announcements
/usr -- top-level directory for individual users
All areas of the site have controlled access. The Artemis Society webmaster acts as site administrator for controlling access.
Generally, the web directories are set up for public read access only, and of course the personal directories are accessible only to the individual owner and the site administrator. Technical committee directories are accessible by the TC chairman, libraries by the designated librarian, etc.
The only fully open directory is /infoex. Its purpose is to be a convenient way for Artemis Project participants to exchange binary files. Files submitted for the libraries would reside here until the librarian moves them.
We don't normally provide a full web site for the sponsors. Normally we'd just provide links to their sites.
However, we should offer this service to sponsors if they are willing to pay the marginal cost of extra space, hits, and site maintenance. This service probably will be the least expensive way for a small company to get on the World Wide Web, which might increase the attractiveness of sponsoring the project.
Note that we're working on providing a full-up commerce server on the TLRC domain, rather than the ASI domain. Companies might want to use that commerce server. The logic here is that the commerce server will require going out for a large capital investment, so we'll have to do it as a commercial business.
The ASI domain web site is all about the Artemis Project and the technical, financial, and political challenges of making it happen. It encompasses all information about the Artemis Project except for the actual commercial business that funds the project; we link over to the TLRC site for those things.
LRC will offer a tutorial on how to write business plans and discuss commercial business opportunities, so that we can keep the commercial business separate from the Artemis Society's work.
The main index is at http://www.asi.org/index.html. This is front door to the whole project.
This page gives a very brief introduction, designed to pique the reader's interest. It includes no reference to any commercial company, except in the navigation bar.
This file includes an index to the rest of the Artemis Project web site.
This is a single page with a flashy image of the moon and a slogan that encompasses the project. It's designed to fit onto a single screen without scrolling, which means the total information must fit into a box 485 pixels wide by 320 pixels high, including the header graphics and the navigation bar.
This is our chance to grab the visitor's attention. It should load fast, present some interesting text to read while the graphics are coming up, and make the visitor want to keep looking.
Design:
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| [image: Artemis Project web logo] |
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| Welcome to the Artemis Project! |
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| Join our world-wide team's efforts to break open the frontiers |
| of space for everyone. As you enter here, set aside the notion |
| that space travel is only for big government programs and a |
| handful of selected government employees. You can go, too! |
| We'll show you how. |
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| It all starts with a modest privately financed exploration base |
| on the moon. To recapture the sprit of exploration, we named |
| the project after the Greek goddess Artemis, the twin sister of |
| Apollo. In Greek mythology, Artemis is the moon, and Apollo is |
| the sun. |
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| Enter here to learn more about the Artemis Project, and join us |
| in the ultimate adventure! |
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| [ ------------------- Nav Bar ----------------------- ] |
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Of course, this text is packed with links:
| "world-wide team" | Artemis Society welcome page |
| "You can go, too!" | Artemis Project vision page |
| "privately financed exploration base" | Artemis Project introduction |
| "Greek goddess Artemis" | Mythology page |
| "Apollo" | Apollo mythology and Apollo program page |
| "Enter here..." | Artemis Project introduction |
This material describes the project, talks about the role of the moon in the future development of space, and has essentially all the cool space stuff. It tells the money story and shows the work breakdown structure for the project. We'll put an updated version of my Analog article here, with a multi-page presentation of the reference mission and alternatives approaches.
This part of the site does not discuss the Artemis Society organizational matters; it's all about the moon, the lunar base, how we'll finance it, and where we're going once we've got it. However, there are copious links to the technical committees and their setions of the Artemis Data Book.
This is where get organized. We present the Artemis Society, its local chapters, affiliate organizations, and local contacts all over the world. These pages include copious links to the form that allows visitors to join the Artemis Society ("we'll bill you for dues") on line.
This where the biography pages go for all the key players. We should offer to put a bio page for any Artemis Society member who wants one, linking to it from a general membership directory.
We need to give sponsors major exposure, and this is where we do it. We'll provide a table of sponsors with a small image of their corporate logo.
We offer in-lined advertisements in the other pages at an additional cost. The whole idea is shameless commercialism, after all.
This is a test of the Tour engine:
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Web Design
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Web Design
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This document is a stop on the
Artemis Project web design tour.
You're welcome to board the tour bus for the next stop. |
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