Web Hob design project with T&T

The project formely known as Web Hob / WebHob / Webhob / webhob is now Toaster.

This page contains information on the Web Hob design project we ran with the London-based agency Tobias & Tobias between January and March 2013.

General discussion about Web Hob happens on a dedicated mailing list: https://lists.yoctoproject.org/listinfo/webhob

Introduction

Web Hob is a web-based interface to the Yocto Project. The agency Tobias & Tobias were hired to start the interface design process, following a previous strategy engagement that established priorities and a high level plan for the Web Hob project.

The design work happened between January and March 2013 and was structured like this:

• 3 design iterations
• 2 rounds of user feedback

The final deliverables would be a set of static wireframes, a web-based prototype and a visual design framework.

Scope

The strategy engagement identified 8 stages for the Web Hob project. The 3-month design work would cover the first 3 stages.

Stage 1

Create the first iteration of Web Hob, a read-only application that is limited to carrying out build metrics and forensics.

Stage 2

Implement the second core capability of Web Hob for the first time - the build specification and creation process. Along with build metrics this will undergo continuous improvement throughout Web Hob's lifetime. Also implement support for multi-user operation, supporting the Team Web Hob context.

Stage 3

Improve the two core capabilities, making them more powerful and more robust. At the end of this stage these core Web Hob features should be mature enough that it is ready to be deployed on publicly available infrastructure.

Scenarios included in stages 1 to 3

• Show Build Metrics
  • Identify image
  • Define scope of analysis
  • Run analysis of image
  • View analysis overview
• Finding / Viewing Builds
  • View list of projects/builds
• Install Single-User Web Hob
  • Check prerequisites
  • Download/git clone Web Hob
  • Install single-user option
• Create build
  • Set up project
  • Choose hardware
  • Set preferences
  • Specify layer(s)
  • Specify base image and packages
  • Run build
• Install Web Hob server
  • Configure team servers
  • Select team options and configure
• Error messaging
  • View error logs

What we really covered

The project plan turned out to be over optimistic. Of the above scenarios, the 2 installation ones (Install single-user option and Install Web Hob server) were never covered.

We, however, introduced an additional scenario about file access.

Final deliverables

Wireframes: File:Final wireframes candidate v1.1.pdf

Static prototypes

Web-based prototype

Visual design (Photoshop files)

Intermediate deliverables

Wireframes

• File:Wireframes-Stage 1-INT-002-0.10.pdf — Final Stage I Wireframes (bright blue links, buttons, etc. are clickable)
• File:Wireframes-Stage 2&3 review-INT-002-0.18.pdf — Interim wireframes incorporating Stage II & III feedback (bright blue links, buttons, etc. are clickable)

Static prototypes index

Iteration	Version	Stage	Scope	Link
1	1	I,III	Build analysis	prototype
2	1	II,III	Projects and builds	prototype
2	2	II,III	Projects and builds	prototype
2	3	II,III	Projects and builds	prototype
2	1	II,III	File browsing and multi-user	prototype
2	2	I,II,III	File browsing and build analysis	prototype
2	4	I,II,III	All scenarios	prototype
2	5	I,II,III	All scenarios	prototype
3	1	I,II,III	All scenarios	prototype

• Iteration is the design round during which the prototype was produced. There were 3 design iterations in this project.

• Version indicates how many variations of each prototype we created as part of the design process.

• Stage refers to the Web Hob stages identified by Tobias & Tobias and described in the #Scope section.

• Scope indicates, at a high level, which scenarios are addressed by the prototype.

• Link to the Yocto Project git repository where the prototype is hosted.

Other interaction design documents

• File:Web Hob content structure.pdf — Web Hob information architecture
• File:Multiuser support in Web Hob.pdf - Design approach to multi user workflows in Web Hob

User feedback

• File:User Test 1 Findings-INT-002.pdf — Summary of feedback gathered on the iteration I designs
• File:User Test 2 Findings-INT-002.pdf - Summary of feedback gathered on iteration II designs

Visual design

Visual design work by Tobias & Tobias started at the beginning of March. They agreed to deliver a set of GUI components and 3 screen mockups:

• My activity dashboard
• Build dashboard
• Package information

The thumbnails below show the visual design work as it was delivered over time. I've grouped them by page, so that it's easier to see how they evolved.

Final versions were delivered on Friday, 22nd March 2013. This is the agency's final piece of work: it doesn't mean it will be the design we will implement. Changes might come based on community feedback.

My activity dashboard

• 

  Final

• 

  22 Mar

• 

  21 Mar

• 

  8 Mar

• 

  4 Mar - light

• 

  4 Mar - dark

Build dashboard

• 

  Final

• 

  22 Mar

• 

  21 Mar

• 

  8 Mar

• 

  6 Mar

• 

  6 Mar

• 

  4 Mar - light

• 

  4 Mar- dark

Package information

• 

  Final

• 

  22 Mar

• 

  21 Mar

• 

  8 Mar

GUI controls

• 

  Final

• 

  8 Mar

Other Web Hob work

• Web Hob - the main page for the Web Hob project
• WebHob Design — Archived - Design and documentation for the first Web Hob project, now superseded by the above.
• Web UI 0.1: File:HOB WEB architecture overview v0 1.pdf (deprecated)