Dear WIGOS community,
the WDQMS team would like to consult with the community about some minor changes to the WDQMS webtool front-end.
While we think that the front-end is generally user-friendly and communicates the values of the community well, we would like to slightly improve it in a future release this year.
Things we have considered
- changing size and contrast of upper-air stations, while keeping in place established colors. Upper-air maps have less dots, therefore the dot size can be slightly increased. Some colleagues experience contrast issues which we hope can be addressed by this.
- centering the map on the user timezone as reported by the browser, reflecting the geographic variety of users and data-providers in WDQMS.
- slightly reducing white/empty space (particularly between the header and map) to give even more prominence to the map. Having more space for the map reduces the risk of duplicate points shown due to wrap-around at the date-lines on bigger screens.
- removing the footer and integrating the disclaimer in a different way.
- having all modules visible without scrolling on the landing page for most screen resolutions.
- aligning the styling of the station pop-ups with the general style (font, edges and corners)
We have also discussed whether WDQMS needs a more responsive design to facilitate use on phone screens or tablets. Does the community feel there is a use-case for using WDQMS on the phone a tablet and do you have concrete experiences to share? Are there users which would benefit from using WDQMS on a phone or tablet?
One potentially larger change further down the line could be using a different background map, for example one with a monochrome styling, on which our data (stations) would feature more prominently and which would reduce contrast issues. Users could potentially toggle different background maps. However, we are mindful that the current map style is part of the visual identify of WDQMS, so a change of map would be a major release and is not in scope for the minor front-end changes considered at this point.
with kind regards,
WDQMS Team