ATNF Website Specifications Document

3. Site Structure

A survey of users identified site navigation and structure as the two areas of the ATNF website most in need of improvement. The challenge is to maximise user access to information contained on a website while minimising the time it takes for them to locate desired information. Difficulties arise if related content is scattered across the website without proper linking and if navigation links insufficiently describe the site structure. To address these issue we consider first the navigational structure and then the physical, or directory, structure of the website.

3.1 Navigational Structure

The navigational structure is designed from the point of view of the stakeholders in the website, in particular the public, astronomers and ATNF staff. The latter group, ATNF staff use the website to reference internal documentation such as human resource information, news of social events and contact directories that is not relevant to non-ATNF users. The main entry point for users should be a home page, although search engines point users to internal links. This suggests the use of a dual home page structure: one for public use, the other designed for people at the ATNF.

3.1.1 Public Home Page

This is the standard page that users will see if they visit www.atnf.csiro.au. It is aimed at members of the public who visit the site for more information about the telescope, students looking for educational resources or opportunities to study at the ATNF and professional astronomer interested in using the ATNF facilities.

The public home page links listed below will form the basis of the standard internal page links located on the navigation bars. Each link would direct the user to pages containing collections of links to other areas of the site. Please note that DB stands for database.

Home Page Link	Description	Links To
News & What's On	Provides feeds from the news and events databases. This includes changes to the websites, upcoming meetings and media flashes. Internal news is not displayed here.	Media releases DB Events DB Symposia DB Site changes DB ?
The ATNF	Descriptions of the ATNF and observatories. Also contains management and organisation information and links to staff pages.	Management Overview History Staff
Research	Descriptions of the projects and research performed at the ATNF.	Projects Research results Data
Images	Access to the online image catalogue.	Images DB

For Observers	Any information likely to be required by observers using ATNF facilities	Time Allocation applications Application forms for Accommodation and other facilities Technical documentation Visitors information
Educational Resources	Aimed at the general public, school and university students.	School curriculum material Information of vacation programs Descriptions of facilities How they work Becoming an astronomer Workshops
Resources	Useful tools and links for Astronomers and Engineers.	ATNF online tools AIPS++ and other software pages Professional organisations Other astronomy facilities
Search	Search facilities	ATNF website search ATNF databases search External search engines
Contact	Contact details for the ATNF.	General contact details Project contacts Staff contact details (restricted access)
Internal	The internal access home page.	Internal home page.

3.1.2 Internal Home Page

Unlike the public home page, which should be made "pretty", the internal home page should be designed for pure functionality. It is intended to provide a central reference to directories, forms, technical, and help material stored on the website. Important daily or weekly events and news should be displayed on the internal home page through linkages with the relevant databases.

Home Page Link	Description	Links To
Administration	Access to internal organisational information and forms for uploading and retrieving data.	Staff and contact directories DB PR forms DB New employee information Staff travel Corporate staff services (external)
Management	Contains management information such as committee structures, announcements, operations plans etc.	Committees Organisation structure Operations plan
News & What's On	Provides feeds from the news and events databases. This includes changes to the websites, upcoming meetings and media flashes. Includes	Media releases DB Events DB Meetings DB Symposia DB Site changes DB Social activities DB Workshops DB
Research	Descriptions of the projects and research performed at the ATNF.	Projects Research results Data
For Observers	Any information likely to be required by observers using ATNF facilities. (Same as public home page)	Time Allocation applications Application forms for Accommodation and other facilities Technical documentation Visitors information
Computing	Access point for all computing information at the ATNF	AIPS++ Other software pages Computing documentation Tutorials Web site documentation
Engineering	Engineering information	Engineering Documentation Facilities

Resources	Useful tools and links for Astronomers and Engineers. (Same as public home page)	ATNF online tools AIPS++ and other software Professional organisations Other astronomy facilities
Staff	Staff web pages	Staff web pages
Help	Compilation of help resources into one page	FAQ's Tutorials Helpdesk instructions Emergency contact details
Search	Searching facilities	Search website Search online databases Search external sites
Educational Resources	Aimed at the general public, school and university students. (Same as public home page)	School curriculum material Information of vacation programs Descriptions of facilities How they work Becoming an astronomer

3.1.3 Additional Links

The home page links in 3.1.1 and 3.1.2 should take the user to pages containing collections of links to relevant sections of the sites. In addition to those links, the home pages would also contain links to each of the observatories, VLBI, and the CSIRO. A feedback link and site maintainer address would also be provided.

3.2 Physical Structure

The navigational structure is designed for the benefit of the page viewer. The physical, or directory, structure of the website serves both the viewer and the publisher. For navigation and typing purposes, general directory depth should be kept fairly short. However, it also has to be organised logically enough to ensure that site authors place documents in sensible locations.

To allow viewers to "guess" paths on the website and to offer intuitive locations for documents, directories should be organised in order of least to most specific subject matter. Each directory should have a name related to it contents, which should be accessible through an "index.html" style file to allow only the directory name to be typed in. For example:

The base directory in the site is accessed through:

http://www.atnf.csiro.au/

To find out the list of projects at the ATNF add

projects/

to the base address. For SKA specific information:

/projects/ska/

and for the list of presentations:

/projects/ska/presentations/

3.2.1 Sample of Top Level Directories

Directory	Contains
/overview	General descriptions of the ATNF and observatories.
/hr	Human resources, EEO.
/workshops	ATNF workshops
/symposia
/projects	Projects such as the SKA
/research	Research outside of above projects.
/management	Management documents, organisational structure, committees, meetings.
/computing	All computing information
/history	History of the ATNF
/news	News documents beyond those in the proposed database.
/people	Staff websites
/observing
/engineering

This is only a selection of top-level directories, as the subject requires further study and discussion. One issue in particular is the location of technical documentation and observatory specific tools. It is imagined that many of these documents will exist on the main ATNF website as links to the observatory websites.

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