Team:BU Wellesley Software/Notebook/ConsueloNotebook

From 2011.igem.org

Revision as of 19:52, 3 August 2011

This is Consuelo's Notebook! Check back for more awesomeness! Follow me on Twitter: [http://twitter.com/#!/ConsiV ConsiV]

Jun 29: eLab Notebook First Computer Prototype

Working on eLab Notebook. Having a brainstorm session with Kelsey while Michelle and Kathy are at the Wet Lab today. We got some designs based on their observations. We are trying to make it conform to the Apple Interaction Guidelines so that it could be successfully deployed in the App Store.

Kelsey and I are currently implementing two alternative implementations for navigation. Kelsey is implementing a version that uses a segmented control to switch between functions. This is a useful implementation because we can easily call the switching function from anywhere; perfect for voice or gesture integration. My implementation stayed truer to HIG in some ways as it employed a root navigation controller. The issue is that we also wanted to use split views as well and they are not necessarily meant to go together.

We got the basic views for the protocols view, the lab state/organization, map, calendar, and a main workspace for notes.

Jun 30: eLab Notebook Final Design Session

Today the eLab Notebook team got together to discuss final designs for the Lab Notebook. We incorporated some redesigns by Kathy and Michelle to support more lab functions. We also incorporated suggestions from Traci that she expressed during the team brainstorming session on Monday.

We've also decided that we are going with the segmented control implementation because switching functions from a navigation controller is a little more convoluted and does not comply to HIG because of the combination of controls.

Jul 5: Almost have protocols view completely functional.

Today I focused on getting the protocols page to work in a manner that supports visual continuity, editing capabilities, notes, and parses the protocols from a plist or an excel document (how they are currently saved.

There were several ways that we considered implementing the protocols view. One way was to have a check box next to each step in a protocol and have the user see each step at a time with notes and images corresponding to each step. An alternative was to use a flow chart instead of a list with check boxes because there are occasional or cases in the steps which cannot really be presented in a list. The trick is to create the branches dynamically and come together after the branch in the progression from one step to another.

Jul 6: Protocols DONE!

Jul 7: Got app to switch from voice commands.

Jul 14: So much for the dragon SDK.

Jul 21: Working on application icons!

Harry the Lab Gnome Action Shots

Aug 1: First visit to BU!