Website Design Philosophy, NEARDAT

The website is designed to foster growth through a central registration system which maintains a clear separation between content (i.e. reports, data sets) and the structure (i.e. domain skeleton). This separation is important in that it allows distributed management of content and supports reasonable flexibility in the structure.

Website Structure

The website structure consists of a tree of records. Each record contains a set of context information (e.g. url, title, submitter) pertaining to any particular branch in the tree. The tree is made of of branches, which constitute the organizational skeleton, and leaves (i.e. reports, data sets) which represent the "content". Each leaf is an object totally independent from any structure. The links are unidirectional from the tree structure toward the leaves. This rule allows any leaf to be reused in multiple trees. The tree grows by adding (through registration) leaves or branches to other branches.

There are two major advantages of this web domain structure.

1. Supports flexibility in display of content

Server software is able to display any part of the tree either by starting at a particular node or by following specific context parameters. Also, the amount of detail can be varied depending on the user's interest. Therefore, users are able focus their navigation to any particular branch without having to find their way through from the top.

Here the display is focused only on Technical Reports
2. Promotes consistency throughout the website

People recognize quickly through patterns. The structure of this website offers a familiar pattern and consistent behavior. In addition, consistency in the structure potentially allows the computer to handle all maintenance work related to growth in the domain tree. This advantage not only reduces time needed for management work, but also guarantees a consistent structure since the computer knows no other way.

Links to Instructional Documents

Navigational Help
Help for Remote Managers
Help for Authors