Cat:Feature Boxes

We are making a lot of changes to the iGEM registry in 2013. We’re building a better site for the Registry and iGEM communities including a lot of new features. One of these is the ability to highlight great parts, collections and other elements we want to show to our community. This element is called the “Feature Box”.

What is the Feature Box?

We have created a new design element on the Registry main page to help highlight content important to iGEM Headquarters and our community. This element allows us to shine a spotlight on pages in the Registry that should be displayed more prominently. We have features for parts, collections of parts, tools, kits and many more subject areas. We plan to change the features on a periodic basis with an archiving system so your parts remain visible, even if not on the main page.

Why have we added this element?

Our community is great at making and submitting highly documented new parts. We have the enviable problem of having too many great parts for the small number of awards in the iGEM competition. We lack a mechanism to report on great parts as they are created during the iGEM competition season and great parts from previous competitions.

We have many, many good parts in the Registry, but they can be difficult to find. Award winning parts can be found by looking through the previous competition results pages, but there are many more great parts that don’t win awards.

Because of these issues, we have created a Feature Box system.

Technical information:

We have some basic design guidelines to help you make feature boxes for your Registry pages. You can create a feature box for your part, your collection, or any other element on the Registry that you might want to link to later on your wiki. Any feature box could be selected for the main Registry page.

Feature box guidelines:

The feature box should be 625 x 300 pixels, an image and should link to your chosen page on the Registry. Our feature boxes used Rockwell as the title font.

Where will the feature box appear?

Feature boxes will appear on part or collection pages on the Registry. They could appear on the main page if they are selected. We are still working on this selection mechanism. Feature Boxes could also appear in other parts of the iGEM wikis, such as on your team page. This allows you to quick reference parts without having to copy information from the Registry.

I think my part is great! How can I make my part appear on the main page?

Feature boxes need to meet the design guidelines in order to be selected for the main page. We want great pictures, simple plots and most importantly why Registry users might want to use your part, not how it works.

If your part meets all the criteria, you can submit it for (review/vote ??)

What happens when you change the features on the main page?

We plan to change the feature boxes on a periodic basis. Because Features change over time, we have an archive page so you can still show when your feature was displayed on the Registry main page. The feature box archive page will show all previous features and when they were shown on the main page.

__