The BGD studio team at the Rhode Island School of Design was commissioned by NASA’s space and life sciences department to redesign their Human Integration Design Handbook. Handbook content was extended into a highly usable online document. View Proposal »
Based on client consultation with our NASA liaison, Ken Stroud, we learned that HDIH intended users were generally technical specialists, often working on very specific components of the space modules. Personalized Home Page features like bookmarking and MyPrint allow users to specify pertinent sections to avoid excessive navigation.
Project outline
- Evaluate deficiencies in NASA web presence
- Respond to user feedback to improve usability
- Audit best practices: Informational Graphics, Web Documents, PHP
- Develop interactive prototype
- Redesign antiquated informational graphics
- Improve typographic hierarchy of technical documents
- Collaborative, dialog driven process
Project Contributions
Conducting a task scenario of existing NASA online documentation lead to the innovation of the embedded supplemental content div. In the MSIS document, a separate volume was included for appendix items. Utilizing AJAX features (asynchronous request items) allows the user to reference supplemental material without ever redirecting from the source content.
Pages of source documents were scoured through and annotated. Suggestions were made to improve readability of out-of-the-box microsoft word documents such as these. Strategies were then conceived to translate the handbook into a navigable online presence. This process was greatly informed by Ed Tufte’s information design seminar, which the team attended in Boston, MA.
A very nice niche blog, and a good design there sparks Simplicity yet complex algorithm of the internet. Thank You
I read on internet land that NASA decided to do a manned mission to Mars by August, 1982, but the fact that Viet Nam war was way too expensive. Such type of mission would have been a drop in the fiscal bucket, compared to the military spending back then. Comparing the value of a manned mission to Mars to that of slugging it out in Southeast Asia, I vote Mars, entirely. We lost Viet Nam; what a waste. We lost our early journey to Mars; what a waste. Now, we certainly have global financial woes and budget cuts. Once more, Mars takes the back seat only to fall out of the vehicle. What can we do in order to avoid strike three?