Making Earth Science Accessible at Scale
Designing the web interface for SlideRule, a NASA-funded platform that delivers on-demand Earth science data to researchers worldwide.
NASA SlideRule
Dr. Tyler Sutterley
University of Washington — ICESat-2 SlideRule
Time
August 2023 — August 2024
Tools
Figma, React, D3.js, Leaflet
Overview
Designing the interface that democratizes access to NASA Earth science data for researchers worldwide
Collaborators
This is a solo project by Gabriel Lam.
Gabriel is responsible for interface design, design system, and data visualization.
A New Paradigm for Earth Science Data
SlideRule is a public web service developed by the University of Washington and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, with initial funding from the ICESat-2 program. It provides just-in-time, cloud-based processing of Earth science data — delivering customizable, on-demand data products through REST-like APIs.
My involvement with SlideRule grew out of a SCADpro collaboration with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where SCAD students worked directly with NASA scientists on the ICESat-2 satellite mission. The UX and interface work I contributed during that collaboration evolved into the current SlideRule web platform effort.
The Motivation Behind SlideRule
The volume of data produced by modern Earth-observing satellites, along with the computational resources required to process it, presents a significant barrier to global-scale analysis for most researchers. SlideRule was created to lower that barrier and promote scientific discovery.
Bridging Complex Science and Intuitive Interaction
As the lead interface designer for SlideRule's web platform, I am responsible for translating the system's powerful but technically complex capabilities into an accessible, intuitive graphical interface. My work focuses on building the interaction layer that allows researchers — many without programming expertise — to configure processing parameters, define regions of interest, and retrieve customized data products directly from the browser.
This role is critical to SlideRule's mission: the platform's scientific value is only realized when researchers can actually use it. By designing guided workflows and progressive disclosure of advanced options, the web interface extends SlideRule's reach far beyond the audience of Python and Node.js developers who interact through code.
Guided Exploration of Earth Science Data
The web interface features an interactive request builder that walks researchers through the process of configuring data queries — from selecting datasets like ICESat-2, GEDI, and HLS, to defining spatial boundaries on an interactive map, to fine-tuning processing parameters. Each step surfaces the right level of complexity, enabling both newcomers and expert users to work efficiently.
Real-Time Results and Visualization
Unlike traditional workflows where researchers download massive datasets and process them locally, SlideRule returns results directly. The interface renders data products in real time, allowing researchers to evaluate, iterate on parameters, and refine their analysis within a single session — reducing what previously took days to minutes.
Democratizing Access to NASA Data
SlideRule's service-based architecture enables broader access to Earth science data for all users — not just those with the computational resources to process petabytes of satellite observations. The web interface I designed is the primary entry point for researchers who need immediate, browser-based access without writing code.
This work directly supports NASA's open science initiatives and the broader goal of making publicly funded research data truly accessible to the global scientific community, educators, and policymakers who depend on Earth observation data for climate research, disaster response, and environmental monitoring.
Learn more about NASA Open ScienceImmediate Updates, Zero Friction
Algorithm improvements, bug fixes, and new capabilities become available immediately. Historical data do not need to be reprocessed, updated datasets do not need to be redownloaded, and multiple algorithm versions can coexist — a direct benefit of the service-based model that the web interface makes tangible for every user.
Funding Acknowledgment
This project is funded by NASA under Award 80NSSC22K1721, "Creating Innovative Ways to Communicate ICESat-2's Scientific Mission." SlideRule is open-source under the BSD-3 Clause License. For more details, visit USAspending.gov.