PDS Home Page

The PDS Home Page is the primary portal by which the PDS user communities gain access to PDS data and the various functions supported by the Page. The PDS Home Page refers to the all the contents and capabilities of the entire web site located at: https://pds.nasa.gov. The principle functions of the PDS Home Page are to:

  • provide users with an introduction to the PDS and assist them in navigating the PDS on-line resources.
  • provide users with mechanisms to locate and retrieve PDS resources, and to guide users in selecting the most suitable of the available options.
  • provide users with access to supplemental information and/or links relating to the missions, instruments, citations, references, and software available in the PDS holdings.
  • assist missions and other users in planning for, preparing, and submitting archive data and materials.
  • provide information about the PDS data model, the structure and organization of the PDS, and access to PDS documents and tools.
  • provide an interface to administrative features such as help pages, answers to Frequently Asked Questions, contact information, announcements, etc.

A Web Interface Working Group (WIWG) was formed in January 2007 to improve the usability of the PDS Home Page. The initial main focus and goal of the WIWG are to:

  • take users to tools within the discipline nodes for finding data via the shortest and best paths.
  • improve usability of PDS Catalog data set search interface on the PDS Home Page.
  • improve usability of other areas of the PDS Home Page.

Working Group

Web Interface Working Group Members include:

  • Reta Beebe
  • Nancy Chanover
  • Dan Crichton
  • Mitch Gordon
  • Todd King
  • Emily Law
  • Mark Rose

Milestones

Near-term milestones include:

  • Implementation (October 2007)
  • Test Review (December 2007)
  • First operational release (February 2008)

Long-term milestones include:

  • Second operational release (TBD)

Current Status

The level 4 requirements have been approved by the MC on April 30, 2007. A proposed implementation work plan was presented to the MC in the May MC telecon. User Interface design review telecon was held on May 31, 2007. Mockups and search prototype can be found at: http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/pds/ System design review telecon was held on July 02, 2007. Visual design options were reviewed by the working group and presented to the MC at the face to face MC meeting on August 13, 2007.

Historical Documents

The historical documents are provided below in reverse chronological order: