I have read into this site and there is a great deal I don't understand at all.

The originator of this thread may have made a valid point.

I was wondering whether the text at the top of the Rositta home page under 'What is Rosetta@home' is too academic and contains technical expressions which may put off some potential users (protein-ligand interactions, proteome ...). Also, the sub-text on the 'Rosetta@home' logo seems a bit technical; it may not be immediately obvious what docking in the context of proteins means. What about changing 'Protein Folding, Design, and Docking' to something like 'Help to fold and design proteins to fight disease' ? This would address potential users more directly, right when they begin to read the page and a reference to fighting disease (in the long run) would certainly help to motivate them. It resently occured to me that the BOINC projects that have more than 2,000,000 credits/day all have names that make it immediately obvious what they are about (SETI was popularized by a movie, this is supposed to be the Einstein year, and everybody is interested in climate/the weather). Perhaps Rosetta should make up for this by making it immediately clear right at the top of the home page and in the most basic terms what Rosetta is about. Perhaps some graphics like the one that explains genes/proteins on the f@h web site would help ? Well, I hope I didn't 'overstep my bounds' in suggesting to change the project logo. ;-) I guess, I simply want to see Rosetta as successful as ever possible in competing with the bigger BOINC projects in terms of attracting users.

I have read into this site and there is a great deal I don't understand at all.

The originator of this thread may have made a valid point.

I was wondering whether the text at the top of the Rositta home page under 'What is Rosetta@home' is too academic and contains technical expressions which may put off some potential users (protein-ligand interactions, proteome ...). Also, the sub-text on the 'Rosetta@home' logo seems a bit technical; it may not be immediately obvious what docking in the context of proteins means. What about changing 'Protein Folding, Design, and Docking' to something like 'Help to fold and design proteins to fight disease' ? This would address potential users more directly, right when they begin to read the page and a reference to fighting disease (in the long run) would certainly help to motivate them. It resently occured to me that the BOINC projects that have more than 2,000,000 credits/day all have names that make it immediately obvious what they are about (SETI was popularized by a movie, this is supposed to be the Einstein year, and everybody is interested in climate/the weather). Perhaps Rosetta should make up for this by making it immediately clear right at the top of the home page and in the most basic terms what Rosetta is about. Perhaps some graphics like the one that explains genes/proteins on the f@h web site would help ? Well, I hope I didn't 'overstep my bounds' in suggesting to change the project logo. ;-) I guess, I simply want to see Rosetta as successful as ever possible in competing with the bigger BOINC projects in terms of attracting users.

This is a good point. The marketing aspect of boinc is something that we are still learning about.
We are working on getting some animations on the website, and creating some more explanatory content.

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Actually, we have grown quite a bit in the last 3 months since our debut. More so than most BOINC projects during their first few months. But of course, we can use as much computing as possible and, thus, would like to increase usership as much as possible. These suggestions are great and may indeed help, and we will work on adding more informative content about proteins, protein folding and protein interactions. I think a significant factor in our growth is word of mouth and keeping users interested, and in my opinion, the best way to do this is to give pently of feedback and to do our best to show the importance and significance of participant contributions (whether it is through our interactions via the forum, acknowledgements in publications...etc..).

Slightly off topic, but making it more user friendly...
Can you get a more user-friendly URL than https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta ?
Me being me, I keep forgetting it, and getting "This page does not exist errors" when I guess! :(

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Slightly off topic, but making it more user friendly...
Can you get a more user-friendly URL than https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta ?
Me being me, I keep forgetting it, and getting "This page does not exist errors" when I guess! :(

Is there some reason you cannot use bookmarks in the browser?

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well you all lost me in a load of scientific gobbledygook there........

I think we have to ask ourselver why it is that SETI attracts more new users every day than all the other BOINC projects combined. Making the web site more accessible to potential users who do not have a significant science background, i.e., the majority of computer users on the planet, may be an important step to change this situation.

well Hermann Brunner

Personaly I think the reason SETI gets more members is the fact there are movies people can relate to and alot of people want to believe and FIND the little green men out there.

as far as Rosetta.. to me at least it was hard to understand what we were doing here when i started looking at this project (after the anouncement of FaD closeing).

so far to me it seems we have the basic anologies and the highley complex pull out your medical dictonary explanations of what we are doing and as far as i can understand them i like it...

Nasher

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Slightly off topic, but making it more user friendly...
Can you get a more user-friendly URL than https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta ?
Me being me, I keep forgetting it, and getting "This page does not exist errors" when I guess! :(

Is there some reason you cannot use bookmarks in the browser?

Its more trying to get people to go to, for example www.rosetta-at-home.com would be easier than trying to get them to go to www.boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta

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yes i also say an easyer link name might be better...

if i could tell people to go to rosettaathome.com or such it is easyer to get them to remember or such.. for instance on FaD WWW.find-a-drug.com or .org and i think 3 or 4 other .names worked to get to the Find a Drug website. and also on the computer at work i can not add links so most the time curently i use a google serch or such to remember what to type to get me here

Nasher

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I'm just reading through this thread in JFK airport on my way back to seattle. some really good suggestions about changing the intro at the top of the web site. we'll work on some revised text and post it here for your comments in the next week or so. thanks for all the suggestions! thanks also to everybody helping out in answering the questions about proteins--much as I'd like to, there is no way I can get to them all.

I showed the great results all of you have obtained in seminars at princeton, yale, and rockefeller in the last few days--keep up the great work!

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Two other factors for SETI@Home to be gaining more people "faster":

1) There are already more people doing SETI@Home, in some cases (still), on an exclusive basis. Thus there is a higher likelihood that a person who sees a screen saver is going to see a SETI@Home one and ask "What is that?"

2) SETI@Home has the screen saver for advertising, though, there is a RUMOR that there is one for Rosetta@Home ... could not tell by me ... *I* have not seen it yet ... :)

I think though, if you look at the numbers, in a proportional sense, RAH is holding its own, and possibly pulling ahead of some of the older projects ... for one thing ... SO FAR ... the project people are still interacting with the participants like they were important or something ... :)

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I think part of the message of the introduction at the top of the web page should be (not ncessarily in those words): "We need your help. Your contribution is important and it will (eventually) help to fight disease." Many of the Baker groups forum contributions contained statements like these and they helped to motivate us all. So I guess they should also appear prominently at the top.

we'll work on some revised text and post it here for your comments in the next week or so.

OK, forgive me, I simply couldn't help it. I just had to try and write a text for the top of the home page (English isn't my first language and I have no background in biochemistry/molecular biology, so be warned ;-):

Rosetta@home needs your help to determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins in research that may ultimately lead to finding cures for some of the major human diseases. Proteins are one of the main building blocks of our bodies. They can be thought of as tiny chains of beads that fold into complicated 3-dimensional shapes. Exactly which form they assume and thus which function they perform in the body depends on the sequence in which differently formed beads are arranged into chains. The precise sequence of beads of tens of thousands of these chains is determined by our genes. With our Rosetta computer program we attempt to determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins from the sequence of 'beads'. By running the Rosetta program on your computer while you don't need it you will help us to speed up and extend our research in ways we couldn't possibly attempt without your help. So sign up right now and download the Rosetta software. We need each one of you !

we'll work on some revised text and post it here for your comments in the next week or so.

OK, forgive me, I simply couldn't help it. I just had to try and write a text for the top of the home page (English isn't my first language and I have no background in biochemistry/molecular biology, so be warned ;-):

Rosetta@home needs your help to determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins in research that may ultimately lead to finding cures for some of the major human diseases. Proteins are one of the main building blocks of our bodies. They can be thought of as tiny chains of beads that fold into complicated 3-dimensional shapes. Exactly which form they assume and thus which function they perform in the body depends on the sequence in which differently formed beads are arranged into chains. The precise sequence of beads of tens of thousands of these chains is determined by our genes. With our Rosetta computer program we attempt to determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins from the sequence of 'beads'. By running the Rosetta program on your computer while you don't need it you will help us to speed up and extend our research in ways we couldn't possibly attempt without your help. So sign up right now and download the Rosetta software. We need each one of you !

Actually, your English is very good. Better than some of the kids I taught in America.

Your project description is really good too. It's a good start for the project admins to work with.

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Kathryn :o)
The BOINC FAQ Service
The Unofficial BOINC Wiki
The Trac System
More BOINC information than you can shake a stick of RAM at.

Hi Kathryn ! Thanks for your encouraging comment. Did you notice that there isn't a single comma in the text ? ;-) I guess the kids you taught would have done better than that.

Some more thoughts on the redesign of the top of the homepage: What actually is the purpose of the google search entry field under the project logo ? I doubt that that is actually used a lot. If it is, it would probably be counterproductive as it directs people away from the page. If the google search field were discarded then the university seal and the [login/out] button could be moved to the left under the project logo, freeing up space for the explantory text. I probably also would remove the green 'What is Rosetta@home ?' headline since it seems to be obious that the text next to the project logo explains Rosetta@home, freeing up even more space. This could be used for a somewhat longer explantory text as the current one, one divided up into several sections, or perhaps some of it could be printed in bold. Just my thoughts while I am sipping my morning tea (actually green tea, Kathryn, is that what you drink over there ?). It is of course completely up to the project people how they want to redesign the page.

Hi Kathryn ! Thanks for your encouraging comment. Did you notice that there isn't a single comma in the text ? ;-) I guess the kids you taught would have done better than that.

Some more thoughts on the redesign of the top of the homepage: What actually is the purpose of the google search entry field under the project logo ? I doubt that that is actually used a lot. If it is, it would probably be counterproductive as it directs people away from the page. If the google search field were discarded then the university seal and the [login/out] button could be moved to the left under the project logo, freeing up space for the explantory text. I probably also would remove the green 'What is Rosetta@home ?' headline since it seems to be obious that the text next to the project logo explains Rosetta@home, freeing up even more space. This could be used for a somewhat longer explantory text as the current one, one divided up into several sections, or perhaps some of it could be printed in bold. Just my thoughts while I am sipping my morning tea (actually green tea, Kathryn, is that what you drink over there ?). It is of course completely up to the project people how they want to redesign the page.

Actually, I didn't notice the lack of commas. I'm not an English teacher by training, but rather a Developmental Psychologist (and the kids I worked with at that point in my life were infants under 1 year of age).

We do drink green tea over here in South Korea. It's one of my favorites when I'm cold at work (they supply tea for the teachers).

As for your ideas, I think losing the search box is a good idea. People who really want to do a search probably have their favorite search engine anyways.

As for the University seal, I'd like to see a bigger version of it. It's hard to tell what it is (although it is clickable but goes to the UW website).

Another thing that would be nice is to move the BOINC logo higher up on the page because it's not obvious at a first glance what software the project runs.

I am happy about the link to the Wiki. I know Paul and company work very hard to make that a good resource for us BOINC-ers. I use it quite frequently to help myself learn about DC and BOINC.

You have good ideas. Must be the green tea.



Kathryn

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Kathryn :o)
The BOINC FAQ Service
The Unofficial BOINC Wiki
The Trac System
More BOINC information than you can shake a stick of RAM at.

As for the University seal, I'd like to see a bigger version of it. It's hard to tell what it is (although it is clickable but goes to the UW website).

Yes, I also noticed that the seal is barely readable and I guess I also agree to your point about the BOINC logo. -Hermann

Nice suggestions. I'll see what I can do with the seal and boinc logo. Any other suggestions out there?

edit: the search box above allows you to search this site. I find it quite handy.

edit: the search box above allows you to search this site. I find it quite handy.

I see you changed the search button to "Site search". How silly of me to assume that this is a web search without even trying. ;-) Still, should it turn out that the space is needed for something else (BOINC logo, seal, whatever), what about only having the search function on pages other than the main page ?

One more thing about the text. Perhaps one should begin by saying "Rosetta@home needs the help of you and your computer ..." instead of just "Rosetta@home needs your help ..." to make clear already in the first sentence that this is about distributed computing. Also, how about a link to the rah_about text at the end of the intro ("... . <a ...>More.</a>") to fill in more details.

After thinking things through, I have two particular suggestions to make. A basic issue that is definately true of the current active distributing computing community in general, and probably true of most people downloading a distributed computing project for the first time, is they don't just agree to join up with a project because its posted at some website. They want a tangible and reliable organization backing the project so they can be sure they are not simply downloading spyware or viruses and they can feel more confident that the project is involved with something worthwhile. The University of Washington is that organization in this case, and you want to make that association as clear as possible at first glance.

Right now I observed that there is essentially nothing in the "Welcome from David Baker" page clearly showing the project is associated with The University of Washington. (While the logo being larger would help, the more clear indications that someone can find upon initial examination the better.) Right now the end of the introduction simply has your name. I would suggest adding your title at the University of Washington under your name to establish the project's link to the university more clearly. This has the added bonus of clarifying your academic credentials to help assure potential new participants that you are a qualified scientist so they can feel more confident that the project is scientifically sound.

The other issue I noticed from the same page is the link from it to the "David Baker Profile" has a similar issue. While it conveys your title, it actually doesn't very clearly convey WHICH university you are part of. If someone actually clicks on the link at the end of the page it should become clear that you are part of the University of Washington, ideally people shouldn't have to go that far just to figure this detail out. Simply the abbreviation "UW" may be fine when just dealing with University of Washington students, but when people from all over the world may be stumbling across this website, they may have no clue what the heck "UW" is an abreviation for. If changing the text on the page is a concern because the text is taken from the original article, I'd suggest adding "University of Washington" in brackets after the abbreviation.

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