3. Design
user interface for
b.
search engine
We have extended previous
experiments in dynamic queries for filtering large spatial datasets, to
create an extensible direct-manipulation interface, shown below.
The active search palette will be highlighted in yellow - the only
colour that can be both highly saturated (to show emphasis) and light
(to maintain contrast between background and foreground elements) [c/f
Tufte, 1990, Envisioning Information
p. 88-89].
Elements with data
entered are listed in bold.
Individual metadata elements can be expanded or contracted as required
by the user.
The range - and + buttons allow
users to decrease or increase the range of values visible in an
element. For example house prices can range from the tens of thousands
to the millions. To present this entire range by default in the slider
would make it too difficult to select (for example) a range of $500,000
- $550,000.
User interface widgets appear on mouseover of individual elements, and
disappear on mouseout, in order to highlight the data rather than the
user interface.
In order to increase the perceived user-friendliness of the real estate
search engine, we are developing the brand my place on planet earth, with the URL
my-place.planet-earth.org, and core brand values of simplicity and
friendliness.
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