Public Lab Research note


GSoC 2021 Proposal - Education-related Usability Upgrades

by anirudhprabhakaran3 | April 03, 2021 16:59 03 Apr 16:59 | #26133 | #26133

GSoC 2021

Education-related Usability Upgrades

About Me

I am Anirudh Prabhakaran, a first-year Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) student at the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, India. I live in New Delhi, India. Apart from programming, my interests include music, physics, and literature, which I frequently post on my social media.

I primarily work with C/C++, Python, Django and Ruby on Rails. I am a member of the ACM and IEEE student branches at my college and the student-built University Management System, IRIS.

Project Description

The project primarily aims to improve the existing content management system. This will be achieved by fixing/improving a collection of systems, features, and fixes focused on educational users and incorporating feedback from educators' PublicLab community.

Some of the fixes include:

  • Adding listing of drafts to profile pages. A minimal way to display these will also be made, keeping in mind the style guide.
  • Adding tooltips explaining latitude/longitude tags on pages.
  • Refining display of co-authored posts on profile pages.
  • Refining design and details of the newly relaunched dashboard.
  • Creating a system for pre-approved signup invitations for students to create accounts that bypass the moderation queue. We also have to make sure that the links expire after a week.
  • Completing email notification opt-outs for moderators to improve this system for educators. The instructions for humans also have to be updated.
  • Including usernames the user has used recently or recently active on the site in auto-completion results with complete wildcard matching.

Abstract/Summary

Due to the growing community of educators using our PublicLab.org content management system, we are hoping to tackle a collection of systems, features, and fixes focused on educational users and incorporating feedback from our community of educators

Problem

This project primarily aims to improve the website services against the backdrop of an ever-increasing community. I hope that after working on this, community members will be much more welcome to the platform and find the user interface much more appealing and easier to use. This will help drive up registrations and engagement by the community.

Timeline/Milestones

Community Bonding

May 17, 2021 -- May 21, 2021

  • Talk to the community and mentors to get more insight into PublicLab and the project
  • Work on a few issues on GitHub and provide some guidance to other contributors
  • Read resources/documentation on SQL and API tuning
  • Get community input on the newly relaunched dashboard

May 21, 2021 -- June 7, 2021

  • Get feedback on ideas on how to implement the project.
  • Work on a few issues on GitHub and provide some guidance to other contributors
  • Read resources/documentation on complete wildcard matching
  • Get community input to refine design choices for co-authored posts on profile pages.

Coding

June 7, 2021 -- June 21, 2021

  • Refine design and details of the newly relaunched dashboard, incorporating community input.
  • Add tooltips explaining latitude/longitude tags on pages and link to the "Location Privacy" page.

Screenshot_from_2021-04-13_16-41-13.png

In this kind of UI, there is a lot of cluttering because of the popup and the tooltip. It'll also be interesting to know what the community feels about it. Personally, I feel that either the pop-up can be removed, or incorporate the tooltip text inside the pop-up itself.

June 21, 2021 -- July 5, 2021

  • Refine display of co-authored posts on profile pages, incorporating community input
  • Add a list of drafts to profile pages, with a minimal way to display these (keeping in mind the style guide).

Screenshot_from_2021-04-13_20-02-18.png

Screenshot_from_2021-04-13_20-05-41.png

<a href = "/notes/author/<%= @profile_user.name %>/drafts"><%= pluralize(@profile_user.drafts_count, 'draft', plural: 'drafts')%></a> </h5></li>

This is my proposal. I want to work on this concept.

July 5, 2021 -- July 19, 2021

  • Create a system for pre-approved signup invitations for students to create accounts that bypass the moderation queue.
  • Make such links expire after one week.

July 19, 2021 -- August 2, 2021

  • Complete the email notification opt-outs for moderators to improve the system for educators.

August 2, 2021 -- August 16, 2021

  • Include usernames the user has used recently or recently active, in autocompletion results will full wildcard matching.

Needs

I have much of the technical knowledge required to complete this task. However, I would need some guidance to complete the last task mentioned in the Project Description regarding SQL, API tuning and wildcard matching. The inputs and advice given by mentors will be invaluable during the entirety of the community bonding and coding period, and I will incorporate all their suggestions into my project submission.

First-time Contribution

I have been active on the Gitter chat and have interacted with mentors and other contributors, often helping them with installation and other issues that I know. I have linked the PR and comments that I have made on GitHub.

This PR has been merged!

Experience

Since middle school, I have been interested in programming and have learned many languages, mainly by self-study. I have worked with open-source software for the past four years. I participated in Google Code-In for three years, after which I participated in DigitalOcean's Hacktoberfest. This clearly shows that I have experience in the open-source domain.

I had also worked on a few projects of my own for my school last year. I made a digital elections application and developed the school blog. I also tried making a new social network, called AirSite. All links to these projects can be seen on my GitHub profile. I also created a document that outlines a phased timeline to implement and set up a Computer Science Club.

Teamwork

Currently, I am part of Team IRIS at my college, which is responsible for the maintenance and development of the University Management System. As of now, I am just a fresher and have handled a few minor issues.

Although not formally working as a team, participating in Google Code-In taught me a lot about collaboration in the software world.

I worked alongside my schools Student's Executive for developing the blog and the elections application. The team comprises many different members, including the head of our school's IT services, Executive members, teachers, administrators, and volunteers. This was a diverse group of people, all of whom were not very well versed with technology. Working with such a diverse group has opened my eyes to the various issues faced in working with stakeholders that are not from a technological background.

Passion

Today, we live in a world facing the immediate threat of climate change and global warming. My generation will be in positions of power in a few years, and the fight against climate change has to be stepped up. For this, information is vital. I believe that every person on the planet should have easy access to accurate, high-quality information, and PublicLab helps achieve that goal. This is why I am motivated to make this product better and more beneficial for the community.

Audience

This project focuses on usability upgrades to the PublicLab website. This will make the user interface more straightforward and easier to use. Everyone that uses the PublicLab website will benefit from these, especially educators. The audience for this project is vast, and that makes it an important task.

Commitment

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, my college is conducting classes and examinations online. These will continue during the coding period. However, the course load of college is less, because of which I will be able to commit to the project seriously. I will put in the required hours and the work to make the project a success.

Contact

You can contact me at my primary email ID (anirudhprabhakaran.201ec106@nitk.edu.in) or my alternate email (anirudhprabhakaran3@gmail.com).

For instant messaging and calls, I am available on SMS and WhatsApp on the number +918826767787. I am also responsive to DMs on Instagram (@anirudhprabhakaran, @an.ion.drifting) and Twitter (@anirudh23p)


4 Comments

Hi @anirudhprabhakaran3 - thank you for your proposal! It would be great to see a little more discussion of how you hope to do these different tasks - perhaps some code snippets or sketches? What do you think will be difficult vs. easy, and why? And, can you anticipate some of the specific design or database-driven challenges you may face as you approach them?

Thanks a lot!!!

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Thank you so much @warren for the feedback! Yes, I'll make the changes that you have suggested - I do have a few ideas in my head! I'll try to complete it ASAP so that maybe you could go through it one more time before the deadline. Thank you so much!


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Hi @anirudhprabhakaran3, it would be good if you could add a section explaining how you plan to implement the project, please includes as much detail as possible, e.g code snippets, mock-ups, data flow diagrams etc. You could take a look at other proposals to get an idea. Thanks for posting

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oh missed Jeff's comment, sorry for the repetition

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