Planet Four Talk

Feature Requests

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator

    The P4 team wants to hear your thoughts and suggestions on features you think might be useful to have on the classify interface or in Talk. I can't promise we'll be able to do everything, but we'll definitely consider all your suggestions (so please do post), and we'll try to incorporate them as best we can when in the future we start to plan and build the next round of upgrades and improvements for the site.

    Thanks,

    ~Meg

    Posted

  • johanngoetz by johanngoetz

    Overall, the interface is very manageable. However, a larger handle for moving the fan outlines would be nice, and when moving them, it would also be nice if the other handles disappeared or at least went a bit transparent so you can seen the image underneath.

    Posted

  • verbtrans by verbtrans

    After completing an image with dozens of fans, perhaps 50 or more, the next image offered was another one with dozens of fans. I was hoping for a couple of easy ones. So, a "Skip" option would be useful. My only other options were to wrongly mark it as completed, or go back to work.

    Posted

  • AstroCam by AstroCam

    I work on a touch screen (iPad) and I find that the movement icons are rather large for the fan, making it tricky to move them around. It's not a problem on the computer interface, but it means it takes longer to complete an image on the touchscreen.

    It would also help if there were an option to stay signed in; my wifi blinks in and out regularly so I have to log back in every time I reconnect!

    A scale indicator on the image would be nice to help actually get an idea of what we're looking at. Thanks!

    • Cameron

    Posted

  • leevanj by leevanj

    It would be useful to have a duplicate fan or have new fans start the same size as the one just placed - for those images with tons of fans all roughly the same size/shape, oh and an image zoom feature would be fun for exploring! great job peeps!

    Posted

  • arfon by arfon

    These are all good suggestions. Thanks! We'll see what we can do over the next couple of days.

    Posted

  • sikaheimo by sikaheimo

    I wouldn't mind if it was possible to mark the general direction of wind. This would be beneficial especially if there are tens or hundreds of small fans which are all blowing to the same direction, or several blotches with just a faint trace of wind.

    Posted

  • wendyduly by wendyduly

    Would it be possible to have some kind of boarder / blank area around the edge of the pictures, so when you are placing fans next to the edge you can still adjust the size. Yes I know you can draw the shape then move into position but that's not so easy to do with small ones.

    another suggestion is a tool to brighten the picture I am often adjesting the settings on my monitor for some of the darker ones.

    Posted

  • delete_def2cad5 by delete_def2cad5 in response to leevanj's comment.

    A zoom feature would be great as well as a restart button in case you make any mistakes (something I hear from Meg is already going to be added) but it would be good to zoom in. My partner is also into this kind of thing and he was asking if you could zoom in. Overall though you've done a really good job already with this site

    Posted

  • shminkypinky555 by shminkypinky555

    A feature a label a point of interest on our observations. Or ask a question about it.

    Posted

  • Mr_Thyroid by Mr_Thyroid

    If I skip a few images because they have loads on fans on does it make me a bad person?

    What you want is a marker that says this images has loads of stuff i.e. more than a dozen.

    Posted

  • Zikar by Zikar

    Something that would be really helpful is to not lose the fan/blotch shape dials if they go off the picture, so you can get the perfect shape for fans/blotches that go off the edges.

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator in response to Mr_Thyroid's comment.

    We want the fan positions. So really doing as many as you can on these images (ideally marking them all) would be extremely helpful.
    ~Meg

    Posted

  • Wounded_Knee by Wounded_Knee

    Dont know if its just me ( Vista/chrome ), but when i zoom in it zooms to the top left of the picture, it would be handy if it zoomed in where your curser was positioned so you could zoom in and out of different ares quickly, instead of zoom then scroll.

    Posted

  • doowac by doowac

    Do you hold information about the direction of the sun (light source) when the images are taken. This would make it easier to determine concave and convex features.

    Also, a special collection of "samples of already explained features"would help to categorise images and save repetition of queries to your team.

    Posted

  • wendyduly by wendyduly

    Another nice feature on your profile would be something saying how many pic's each person has done, Or what size area each person has covered.

    Posted

  • Jo_Public by Jo_Public

    The point of interest feature is a set size and is quite small. My first image showed hundreds of smallish white dots which looked a bit like ice but I couldn't say for sure. It would have been handy to be able to expand the interest feature to include a wider area to show more of this as it was I just had to do several "star" shapes and hope that was enough to flag it up.

    Posted

  • eagiles by eagiles

    have i missed something, i was doing that as well

    Posted

  • Timobulle by Timobulle

    Maybe I am mistaken, but is there a list of hash-tags and what they represent anywhere (for non-english speaking people, it must be a major difficulty) ? And is there a search button anywhere to look for posts which might interest us Or must we go through all of them hoping we find something we are looking for ?

    Posted

  • Noharrr by Noharrr in response to mschwamb's comment.

    Thanks for the opportunity to play with these images. As Spock would say, "Fascinating." The team has done (another) great job. However . . .

    It would be really helpful to have a tool that says "small fan" -- just an isosceles arrowhead, with a way to rotate it. The Milky Way project has a similar tool called "small bubble" (qv) for gaseous bubbles that are too small for the main bubble-drawing tool to deal with. I'm getting sore hands from trying to downsize and orient the main fan tool.

    Also: white is not the best outline colour. In a busy frame, it is almost impossible to tell which features you have already marked, due to the translucent, fine-point guidelines that remain after an feature has been marked. How about magenta, or something Mars is less likely to own as a colour?

    Another feature to borrow from the Milky Way Project relates to the above: "Hide all" Hide current", which revert to "Show current" and "Show all" when clicked a second time. This is really helpful in sorting out what has/hasn't been marked.

    Hope this is useful.

    Posted

  • cordeliaseale by cordeliaseale

    i love this program but i would like more demonstration

    Posted

  • wassock by wassock moderator

    The position of the sun would make it a lot easier to understand what we're looking at - or at least would mean we can look at each image in the same way. An idea of scale would be good too there's an indication that there are 2 scales in operation, one twice the other, but there are also some images which seem to have familiar features only taken from a lot further away than is the norm. It would also be good it there was a guide to the common hashtags, or those that are of most interest so that everyone can use the same #tag for similar features rather than making one up each time they see something new - as an example theres a type of terrain which is typically top to bottom "grooves" (see http://planetfour.org/subjects/standard/50e7401f5e2ed2124000298b.jpg) which are being tagged as tramlines, lines, parallel lines, grooves and so on

    Posted

  • cuttelld by cuttelld in response to mschwamb's comment.

    I just wondered if there could be 2 more boxes, a fan field and a blotch field meaning, as viewed picture, has too many features to pick out, one of my pictures had 170 blotches, that turns people off this is supposed to b fun and entertaining/enjoyable. if all im going to get is hundreds for fan and blotched i wont be here for long

    Posted

  • magtys by magtys in response to leevanj's comment.

    I agree with leevanj - a way of copying fans would be great! It would be useful when there are multiple fans and save a lot of time....

    Posted

  • MarsGazer by MarsGazer

    Ohw just posted 2 in the section above, marked as interface:

    1. would be an option to post a small bit of text to an [interesting feature] so a user can mark 'what they find interesting' about a certain feature. This may turn out to usefull for you scientists, as you may not understand what is 'interesting' for a user just by a star on a certain feature.

    2. A Scale! ... without a scale we may be looking at the microscopic image of a fingertip, or at interestingly shaped mountain ridges... without a scale there is no way to tell ...

    Posted

  • JellyMonster by JellyMonster

    Either a feature to rotate the images through 180 degrees or alter the javascript to do the same thing. Users will be able to understand the images better that way as I have explained many times before.

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator in response to MarsGazer's comment.

    Just wanted to say thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Keep them coming. We'll definitely try and incorporate the ones that we can into the site and interface.

    ~Meg

    Posted

  • Killzerman by Killzerman

    Perhaps a button to tag pictures that are a bit glitched, if you get me(you know the ones with green lines or big red patches), so they can be fixed(if even possible) or... i dunno, would it have any use?

    Posted

  • AlbionStarDestroyer by AlbionStarDestroyer

    things required;

    1. Scale
    2. Light direction (if that is possible)
    3. Label on the "interesting feature" tool (so you can tag the feature to what you think it is)
    4. An "interesting photo" tool. There are times when I have to include several "interesting feature" marks
      when really, the entire thing is unusual and interesting.
    5. "Frost" marker
    6. fan field tool (with drag to direction arrows for general direction)
    7. Blotchfield tool (with drag to average size for general marking)
    8. Location of the land you are looking at

    Posted

  • Wounded_Knee by Wounded_Knee

    When classifying a fanfield a useful feature would be that the fan marker orientates to the direction of the previous fan, this would mean you wouldnt have to click an drag the marker to rotate it as it would be aligned in the genaral direction of the fans, also making the widen fan squares as easy to use as the round length marker, it can take ages to widen a single fan, if you got 20+ of them...........

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator in response to Killzerman's comment.

    The ones that have a color stripe mean we don't have one of the three color filter observations for that section of the CCD for some reason. We wouldn't be able to fix those images. A good idea if we could fix those images.

    Cheers,

    ~Meg

    Posted

  • wassock by wassock moderator in response to Wounded Knee's comment.

    Think the problem with the pre aligned fan tool will be that you will automatically squew the data because you'll end up setting the direction for all the fans identically, which it may be, but who's to say you got it right the first time? I think the whole idea is that 100 separate measurements of direction will give a much better idea of true direction that 100 repeats of essentially the same measurement. There are probably statistics involved, horror.

    Posted

  • DugLess by DugLess

    I see fans in completely non-uniform directions so to me an align fan tool would not work so well

    Dave

    Posted

  • DugLess by DugLess

    Change the fan line colour to Green so easier to see what has already been tagged maybe

    Posted

  • Killzerman by Killzerman

    Definitely a way to tag photos as blotch fields and fan fields whilst classifying, perhaps include tags for cracks and spiders?
    Also, perhaps you could give the right mouse button a different function, like make it delete the selected label or something, would get rid of the big x on tiny fans

    Posted

  • wassock by wassock moderator

    Don't think you can tinker with the way the tools work now - if you do all the data previously gathered can't be compared with what is gathered with the altered tools.

    Posted

  • delete_def2cad5 by delete_def2cad5

    I have just thought of new features which would help me; a "save" button and a "saved", "continue", etc button on the classifying page allowing you to access the pic you'd saved and continue working on it. That would really be useful in helping me not skip images as well, would mean I could mark everything on a busy image or at least more than I'm able to now, if I could save, find it easily again later and continue marking. That's the main reason I have skipped the images I have or just marked one or two on busier ones; because there's currently no way to save and continue with that one later, only the option to finish and move on. It's just too much for me to do really busy ones all at once. I don't like skipping any and wouldn't have done at all if there was an option to return to the same image and continue marking once I'd given my hands a rest. I suppose I could leave the tab open and come back later, but that's not always practical, if say, I wanted/needed to go out or for some other reason had to shut the tab down or switch off the computer. Marking some on a photo, saving, then returning to do the rest, especially on busier ones, seems the easiest way to me. I'm sure a save feature would encourage others to mark more and skip less as well

    Posted

  • mattlou117 by mattlou117

    many fanfields have fans the same size and all pointing in the same direction, it can take ages to outline them all so a way to repeat an outline of a fan would be very helpful, a kind of copy feature. I also agree that a zoom feature would be very helpful, too.

    Posted

  • mattlou117 by mattlou117 in response to wassock's comment.

    I agree with Wounded Knee on this, I understand your point about getting the first one right and thus all the others will be wrong if it's not but if you do 100 separate one's there is nothing to say that you will be right on any one of them. I have seen fanfields with many fans the same size and pointing in the same direction so a pre aligned tool would be very helpful and no more inaccurate than doing 100 separate one's.

    Posted

  • delete_def2cad5 by delete_def2cad5 in response to wendyduly's comment.

    I'd like that Wendy. Would be nice to keep track of just how many photos I've marked something on, as opposed to the total number I've looked on the classifying page since signing up which I think they have a tally of on the main Zooniverse site (had been skipping a few before I knew it was such bad practice) try not to do that now though and it would be handy having a tracker like that on profiles here as well so I second your suggestion 😃

    Posted

  • delete_def2cad5 by delete_def2cad5 in response to verbtrans's comment.

    I suggested a save feature for just that reason verbtrans. I know what you mean, my hand sometimes ends up aching after I've finished one with a lot to mark and then to get another the same straight after, can feel daunting and off-putting. I want to try to avoid skipping if poss, so thought of a save feature, so you could do some, save, take a break, then go back and finish off marking that pic later. At the moment, much like yourself, I just mark a few. not all, if I get two pics in a row with a lot to mark then click finished (when I'd actually prefer to save it, go back later and finish it properly). It's just too much for me marking a lot of busy pictures one after the other, but want to do my best for the project

    Posted

  • kooba by kooba

    Yeeha, a short trip to mars, working with current data...that's just great 😃 I really like it, thanks in return ...

    But i feel a bit uncomfortable with the interface...there are 2 or 3 major thing i want to point out:

    • when classifying in bright images sometimes the borders of fans, botches an features you put are not really visible anymore, because they are withe - So in the end i don't know anymore if i had it yet or not... A great and easy to implement feature would be to make the borders of classified fans/boulder/features to go red when you are hovering above them with your mouse again (or make give them a half-transparent background)

    The discussion-board is mostly very cool. I like the #hashtag feature really much...but the navigation is not so good. From the landing page of the discussion-board it was a long way to find this thread for example, because i surfed a "recent post" to get into the specific forum (chat), clicked through some post's and found a link to this page.

    • i miss to click an a top-forum to get into it, instead of clicking a recent-post highlighted in the landing area (or did i miss something?)
    • i miss a sticky-post feature, as it is common in other forums/discussion board

    And for the last, the profile is somehow weird. I mean a specific component...my favorites/last image navigation bar, i have when in the game. I can image, that this application is seperated into the game-part (classification) with it's player-profile (where my favs and recent images are) and this account-profile in general. But it would be nice to have a link from my profile-page to come directly to my favorites and recent image instead of clicking "return to classifying" in the top-right an navigate from there..

    These are just some observations and suggestions, don't mean to offend anyone. You did a great work and i like to be here...it would make it (in my eyes) simply more fluidly 😃

    Posted

  • Kitharode by Kitharode moderator in response to kooba's comment.

    Hi kooba. I'm so glad that you sent that post. Wassock, JellyMonster and myself have been asked (very recently) to do a bit of 'trawling' through the discussions to try and reduce a bit of backlog, as well as looking out for those that pop up to the top like this one. I'd no idea this was on site because there's something similar under a different title elsewhere. Don't know where but I've seen it somewhere. 😉

    Having got to know the science team a little better I can tell you that these ideas above are being looked at and in future 'phases' / 'versions' of this place then many of the above will be dealt with - If they can deal with them. I'm guessing there will be some things they have no control over, like software development maybe, but a couple of glitches have been passed on (and fixed) so things move slowly sometimes, but they move - Bit like Mars, eh?

    One thing they have done is to appoint 'The Mods' (that's us three) to do some little chores, as I'm doing now, to help ease the pain of waiting. One simple thing we can deal with, to a certain extent, is the 'sticky' post. Sadly, I don't think it helps you directly because it sounds as if 'you' would like to make stickies which is not possible. (Forgive me if you mean something different).

    However, the Mods can do this and we have made a start on making 'useful' stickies, eg. FAQ's, Glossary of Terms, Useful Links. Soon (soon?) we will add a sub-board to the Science board which will hopefully be beneficial to us all. We know it'll be useful for the science team, they told us so.

    Not a lot I know, but hope that helps. I've noticed you've posted elsewhere - I'll have a read now. Well, after I've made a brew anyway. Cheers Kith.

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator

    It looks like there have been some new updates to Talk including the Recent Tab and the ability on new posts to mouse over the "Posted X ago" and get the exact time and date a post was made. If there issues or suggestions based on what you see with the new features or things you'd like to see, please do post.

    Cheers,

    ~Meg

    Posted

  • p.titchin by p.titchin

    like JellyMonster, I think a way of rotating the image would be a real help. Although I'm able to 'see it' the other way when JellyMonster rotates an image in the discussion boards for us, it often makes it much more obvious.

    Posted

  • JellyMonster by JellyMonster in response to p.titchin's comment.

    It's a nice idea but it would almost certainly screw up the 'fan/blotch' findings, especially if some users wish to rotate and others wish not to (when classifying). However, It is quite easy to do in an image editing program. Not only that but you can enhance the photo by playing around with the brightness/contrast settings to help bring out the detail and even alter the colours. I can guide you through the processes if you like or I can do it for you (if not too many).

    Posted

  • p.titchin by p.titchin

    Thanks JellyMonster, If I find a puzzler, I shall certainly ask for your help.

    Posted

  • JamesBoulton by JamesBoulton

    Could you redesign the pictures in the profile page so they keep the markings after people mark them? Possibly link it to the identity of each user so the pictures are altered by codes unique to each user and linked to their activities in classification before the pictures are viewed? You would need a small code unique to each user and picture, so to reduce the amount of code needed you could limit the function to certain types of groups. Which groups get this function could be decided by the users by some sort of menu.

    Posted

  • wassock by wassock moderator

    Hi James - can I ask why you want this feature?

    Posted

  • wxmikej by wxmikej

    Including a little section in the About or FAQ page about how to understand the four ephemerides angles/azimuths listed on the "Geometry of HiRISE observations is on Talk!" might be helpful. Additionally, going through past threads it sounds like cutout tile scale has been addressed in different ways, but adding a note in the About or main FAQ page about their average (200m) scale listed in the discussion boards would also be helpful as well. Thanks for this experience. As a graduate student in a M.S. Space Studies program, I felt this was a very informative look at the practice of planetary science of today.

    Posted

  • Kitharode by Kitharode moderator in response to wxmikej's comment.

    Hi. Thanks for that. I've a feeling that the ephemerides you mention are explained somewhere here on Talk, but an About/FAQ article would make them more accessible. Good idea - Worth a follow up methinks. Cheers. 😃

    Posted

  • HMB6EQUJ5 by HMB6EQUJ5 in response to wxmikej's comment.

    Hi wxmikej! Perhaps the blog article of March 12 2015 might answer some of those questions.

    Posted

  • Kitharode by Kitharode moderator

    Thanks Bill. Just found the blog article you mentioned. Here's the link.

    I'll see about getting the link into the FAQ section.

    Posted

  • Freethesouls by Freethesouls

    I would like to see a chat room ...Meg already commented on this in my other post that a feature will come about.

    Posted

  • Freethesouls by Freethesouls

    Also, I like to see more sample images of baby spiders (not real spiders but the term used for ball like objects on the surface of Mars.) as they look a bit different from image to image so that be cool to explain them in more details.

    Posted

  • Freethesouls by Freethesouls

    Someone mention a skip button for images on planet Four....Well I think a skip button would be nice for all of the zooniverse science projects or some. I know galaxy zoo does not want a skip button but for us to classify a difficult galaxy. So the question is will a skip button be the best bet for planet 4? And a feature like "Be a martian" by NASA where one can write a short note of what seems to be interesting in the pic. Just a box to write notes in.

    Tom Free The Souls

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator in response to Freethesouls's comment.

    Hi Tom,

    Thanks for the suggestion Just like Galaxy Zoo, we don't want people to skip. That means harder images someone might no try when they actually can mark the features.. Basically if one person wasn't sure and went the wrong way in marking, that's okay because we have 30 other people marking. Also it means that if they don't see anything fans or bltoches they might skip as well and then we would have no information where there aren't these features.

    On Planet Hunters, another project I was involved in, there was a 'I don't know' button for one of the questions and people rarely used it. So although a small fraction people ask for it, the reality is we do okay without having the button and get more information.

    Cheers,

    ~Meg

    Posted

  • Freethesouls by Freethesouls

    Also, it used to be that clicking ones screen name will show the projects one is in and the number of images one has classify or done. I hope they implement that too........thanks very much...Tom(Free the souls)

    Posted

  • Freethesouls by Freethesouls

    And have a profile that shows the work one had done needs to be put into the new projects like it is here......if possible.
    Sorry to keep bothering you.
    Thank you very much,
    Tom

    Posted