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author Sebastien Jodogne <s.jodogne@gmail.com>
date Fri, 22 Apr 2016 12:57:38 +0200
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+Orthanc Explorer is not user-friendly enough for my use
+=======================================================
+
+Orthanc is designed as a lightweight service for medical imaging,
+where the word *service* must be understood in the sense of
+`service-oriented architectures
+<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture>`__.  As
+a consequence, Orthanc is conceived as a robust back-end server
+(command-line) that aims to provide the most simple and generic
+support of DICOM. To state it differently, **the primary focus of the
+Orthanc project is not on the user interface**.
+
+However, Orthanc comes out-of-the-box with :ref:`Orthanc Explorer
+<orthanc-explorer>`, its default Web user interface. **Orthanc
+Explorer is designed for administrative, low-level purpose.** It is
+also used by the development team to test the features of Orthanc as
+they get introduced in the REST API. Orthanc Explorer is mainly
+targeted towards a technical audience (notably system/network
+engineers, `PACS
+<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_archiving_and_communication_system>`__
+managers, medical physicists, and researchers).
+
+**Non-technical audience** (physicists, patients, administrative
+staff...) **might expect an user interface that is more user-friendly
+than Orthanc Explorer**, and/or that integrates more features (such as
+sorting resources, access control lists, tagging images, beautiful
+layout...). If you need such a more advanced `user experience
+<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience>`__ so that Orthanc
+better fits your clinical workflow, you will have to develop a
+separate, custom Web interface on the top of the :ref:`rest`, maybe as
+a `plugin
+<https://github.com/jodogne/OrthancContributed/tree/master/Plugins>`__. Any
+front-end Web developer could take care of this task using well-known
+JavaScript frameworks (such as Meteor, AngularJS, Ember.js...).
+
+It is possible that an official plugin that provides a more advanced
+user interface will be developed in the future (provided we find
+funding for this development). In the meantime, you can also contact a
+company that provides **commercial support on the top of Orthanc** and
+that might have developed an advanced user interface. Currently,
+`Osimis <http://osimis.io/>`_ is the only company ensuring such
+corporate services, but others might show up in the future. A `contact
+form <http://www.orthanc-server.com/orthanc-pro.php>`_ is available on
+the official Web page of Orthanc.