I am working on the web interface for a fairly complex database that integrates several different types of data (gene expression, sequence, annotation). A basic interface for accessing individual records in the database has already been written, but my lab's biologists would like to see a more powerful form interface. They would like to be able to add thresholds on arbitrary fields and set other parameters for several fields at a time.
I have been pointed to the Query Builder on NCBI's Trace Archive (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Traces/trace.cgi) as the basic concept, and I can see how that could be implemented with its helpful auto-complete text, but it seems like it still has quite a learning curve and is not really very intuitive. I have also found BioCyc.org's Advanced Query page (http://biocyc.org/query.html) and several others that are similar or harder to use. AJAX can help, and we plan to integrate auto-completion of some text, but I would like to build something powerful and yet intuitive that does not require someone to read a manual before using. Any suggestions? I suppose innovation in UI design often starts in other places first so I'd appreciate any non-biological examples as well. Thanks! Keith Callenberg _______________________________________________ BBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/bbb
