Research and Planning
This section outlines the research and planning that went into the project. Although the main product may seem to be this website, with its search facilities, in fact a principal goal of the Anglo-Saxon Cluster was to research issues of integrating, particularly regarding historical content. Indeed, it is hoped that this research was not only invaluable for the Cluster itself, but will also be useful for others who try to integrate existing content.
The discussion is divided into four sections.
- Integrating Historical Data. This section discusses the challenges in integrating different sources of historical data, and why this is more difficult than most forms of data.
- User Scenarios. An important part of planning any project is to understand the audience's needs. A formal structure exists for doing this, namely drawing up Use Cases and User Scenarios, both of which are discussed in this section.
- Modelling and System Design. Once the requirements and constraints were understood, the system as a whole could be planned, as discussed here.
- Interface Design. Another crucial part of the project is how to design the user interface. This is a particularly challenging problem, since the users need to understand precisely what they are searching, and where the results come from, as discussed further in this section.