Hydra UX call - 4 Dec 2014

 

On the call:

  • Mark Notess (host)
  • Gary Geisler (presenting)
  • Stu Snydman (presenting)
  • Chris Awre
  • Kevin Reiss
  • Mike Muraszko
  • Richard Green
  • Nick (from Cornell)
  • "Cornell UX"
  • "U Cincinnati"

 

Agenda and Notes

Current Spotlight functionality

Stu noted that Stanford want feedback on Spotlight as it stands to help inform future development.  He is particularly interested in anything that others see as a potential barrier to Spotlight's adoption elsewhere.

Gary gave a quick demo of the first public exhibit deployed by Stanford using Spotlight. (Everyone on the call had some experience of Spotlight already).  

Current goals for Spotlight development

Currently looking at ways of including "non-repository" content in exhibits (maybe by pointing at an existing URL: images first, image downloaded locally and very basic metadata added). 
Looking to offer better visual impact on home and feature pages.
Interested in additional widgets for page building beyond what they have already (ideas and/or code welcome!).   

 

The main UX aims for the current round of development are:

 

  • Make the visuals more appealing all round
  • Lots of cleaning and tidying how Spotlight addresses tasks now
  • Enhance the presentation of contacts

 

This current round is kicking off now and will run through to the end of January 2015.

Additional features - what could Spotlight usefully do in the future?

Needs a widget to embed Avalon media.

Can Spotlight be adapted to be a standard part of the Hydra toolkit? Chris Beer is looking at this within Stanford.

A Spotlight sandbox might be useful...  This will be fed back into the Stanford team for consideration.

Developing Spotlight - how the community can assist in achieving the goals discussed

Try spotlight locally.  There are two ways to install the current Blacklight plugin detailed at https://github.com/sul-dlss/spotlight

Stanford would love to receive feedback from any user testing conducted elsewhere.  Feedback can be sent to exhibits-feedback@lists.stanford.edu.  Alternatively, please add an issue to the github site for attention.

Ideas for additional features are also welcome, but their implementation cannot, of course, guaranteed depending on priorities.

 

Next call

The next call will be on Thursday February 5th.  Ideas are welcome for topics to cover.  A straw poll of attendees suggested that image viewers would be a good area to explore, and this will be followed up.