Proforma Building

Specifying the description data to be collected for each specimen in a project is one of the main user tasks. The character concepts of interest that a taxonomist wishes to capture data about vary from project to project. These character concepts of interest are the data requirements that must be specified in order to collect consistent data for each specimen in the study. The specification applies to all specimens in the project.

The specification task is different than the cognitive process of initially conceiving and discovering the character concepts that are relevant for a project. Deciding what taxonomic character concepts a user wishes to utilise within their project, uses the taxonomist’s expertise, knowledge and reviews of appropriate literature. It is not intended to replace this aspect of conceiving initial character concepts with the specification task, although it may provide an extra source of support for it. The specification task at its narrowest includes placing the initial concepts into terms of the adopted data model. Character concepts as described in chapter two are often loosely applied in current practice and require to be specified consistently for our purposes. Additionally it should be noted that the initial cognitive concepts, being general

amorphous concepts, are often difficult for taxonomists to articulate even in the loose sense of character concepts,. It is sometimes only when they think of placing them in a proforma, that the initial general concepts evolve into the individual, recognisable

character concepts as discussed in section 2.4.1.

4.3.1 Process of usage

Figure 4.4 shows a breakdown of the specification task. This involves repeatedly adding new character data requirements. The primary sub-tasks include:

• Determine the structure hierarchy and identify the relevant structure(s) for a

character concept.

• Determine the type of character. Characters were divided into quantitative, qualitative and relative types.

• Specify the property and state.

• Explore definition space. Users required to find appropriate defined terms to use in specifying characters.

• Explore description space. Users required to explore the existing specified data and existing descriptions to find useful elements to re-use in creating further ‘character’ data requirements.

This specification task and the implications of the nature of the data used to perform operations upon are discussed in more detail below.

Seek Character Idea

Determine Structure Taxonomist’s Expertise

and Knowledge of Data

Explore Description Space

(other data sets)

Explore Description Space (structures) Select Structure Define Structure Search / Explore Definition Space Or Add New Definition

Place Defined Structure

in Hierarchy

Determine Type of Character

Select Abstract Name

(or property) Select Property Select Property

(if any)

Select State Term

Define State Review Proforma Define Property Select Unit Define Unit Determine Target Create Target (if does not exist)

Select Relationship Qualitative Relative Explore Description Space (proforma) Search / Explore Definition Space Or Add New Definition

Quantitative

Structure exists in proforma hierarchy

Figure 15: Creation of Proforma

Structure not in proforma Seek Character Idea

Determine Structure Taxonomist’s Expertise

and Knowledge of Data

Explore Description Space

(other data sets)

Explore Description Space (structures) Select Structure Define Structure Search / Explore Definition Space Or Add New Definition

Place Defined Structure

in Hierarchy

Determine Type of Character

Select Abstract Name

(or property) Select Property Select Property

(if any)

Select State Term

Define State Review Proforma Define Property Select Unit Define Unit Determine Target Create Target (if does not exist)

Select Relationship Qualitative Relative Explore Description Space (proforma) Search / Explore Definition Space Or Add New Definition

Quantitative

Structure exists in proforma hierarchy

Figure 15: Creation of Proforma

Structure not in proforma

Figure 4.4: Creation of Electronic Proforma. Character concepts are successively added into the system’s understanding of the data requirements for a project by

the taxonomist.

To specify a character once the taxonomist has a descriptive concept in mind, the taxonomist must first describe what plant structure is being referenced. In the Prometheus II data model, a plant structure is described using either single defined

structure terms, or multiple defined structure terms linked by part-of relationships, which creates in the plant description, hierarchies of structures. The system adopts a similar view, which allows flexibility to identify any plant part and is meaningful in domain terms to taxonomists. The taxonomist thus determines a structure for a

character, by either creating a new term instance or utilising part or all of an existing

structure hierarchy, already created within the proforma. Creating a new instance of a defined structure involves selecting a structure term, defining that term if necessary, and placing it within the simple structure hierarchy. This is repeated if necessary until the structure is sufficiently described. In figure 4.5, a structure hierarchy example can be seen in the ‘Structure Editor’ pane.

Figure 4.5: Creating an Electronic Proforma Prototype. Example from initial storyboarding.

Once the structure of the character has been determined, the aspect or property of that structure which is being described must be determined. This aspect is the abstract quality of the structure being measured, which is chosen from the fixed list of system properties (e.g. shape, colour, length). The final step in describing a character for the proforma, is determining the domain of possible scores which the character can take

(e.g. elliptic, ovate). For quantitative characters, any number can be accepted, consequently a domain need not be determined.

Selection of terms involves exploring description space or definition space. Using description space, selection could be achieved by finding existing terms in the proforma and using them, along with their definitions. The taxonomist may wish to either re-use a structure term as is, in the same place in the structure hierarchy (as explained above). Alternately, they may wish to copy the structure, creating a second instance of it in a different structure hierarchy context. Alternately using definition space, selection could be achieved by searching through the list of defined terms held within the system’s domain model. The taxonomist can then select and utilise terms of interest. Various filters and search aids are provided by the interface, based upon relationships between terms and other terms or system understood macro terms (such as ‘Defined Term’ Leaf is a kind of ‘Structure’). Aids for searching definition space are important due to its potentially very large size. Figure 4.2 shows an example of the locating of appropriate ‘State’ terms for a character, using filters to restrict the viewed terms to ‘state’ terms and ‘shapes’. The resulting terms are grouped by their name, with 3 specific defined terms being displayed for the selected name ‘Elliptic’.

4.3.2 Refinements to the process of usage during storyboard development

Based on initial investigations, this process was refined before final storyboard walkthroughs were done. The need for users to indicate the property was removed, with the system inferring the property from the possible scores. Each state would have to include the data on which system property it applied to for this inference to be made. The system would also have to enforce that all scores referred to the same property. Defined measurements based on system quantitative properties (e.g. length, width) would also be represented in the glossary and one could be added as a possible score to a character, with appropriate inferences made.

An abridged example is given below of adding a qualitative character to the proforma, based upon the storyboarded walkthroughs (e.g. figs. 4.3, 4.4., further storyboards in Appendix A). The user decides what part of the plant is being described in this character. Then the user explores the pro forma overview to determine if the required structure(s) is already present and selects the elements 'Leaf - Leaflet'. Next they explore

definition space for relevant possible defined states, selecting defined terms for ‘elliptic’, ‘oblong’ and ‘oblanceolate’. The system infers the property 'shape' from the first selected state and generates a default name for the character of ‘Leaflet Shape’. The interface now looks like figure 4.6. Lastly the user reviews the character and indicates the character is complete.

Figure 4.6: Specifying a character to add to a proforma. Example from storyboarding.