RefHandler GUI Prototype Design guidelines

This section of the GitHub Wiki presents a visual design prototype for a RefHandlers web interface — a mock-up of what the RefHandler service could look like as a web application. It is not a deployed or production-ready site, but rather a conceptual exploration of user flows, UI structure, and interface elements based on the underlying RefHandler project. The design was sketched in Figma and used v0.app for idealizing more specific detailing.

The RefHandler project itself is a full chain of tools aimed at helping writers and advisors manage scientific articles and theses — from organizing works and references to interacting with large language models for reference evaluation and citation analysis.

The goals of this design prototype are to:

• Visualize key user experiences and workflows that could support RefHandler’s core functionality.

• Demonstrate layout ideas for dashboards, reference management views, and LLM-assisted tools.

• Provide a foundation for future front-end development and discussions with designers, developers, and users.

DASHBOARD

The dashboard is the main view of RefHandler. It lets users upload papers, see recently added documents, and view citation information quickly in one place.

SEARCH PAGE

The search page lets users find papers by title, author, or name. Results are shown in a clear list with basic details like file size, date, and citation count.

PROJECTS PAGE

The projects page shows all research projects in one place. Users can create new projects, open existing ones, and see how many papers and members each project has.

STATISTICS PAGE

The statistics page shows citation numbers and trends. Users can see totals, averages, and basic charts to understand how their papers and sources are used.

SETTINGS PAGE

The settings page includes basic setting modification abilities i.e user and paper management.

ADMIN DASHBOARD

The admin dashboard is used to manage users and system settings. It shows user activity and allows admins to view, enable, or disable user accounts.