Newspapers and magazines are the print venue for humanity's expression. They keep people informed, entertained, and, in some cases, change the course of political destinies.
Publications on the Web function in much the same way, although there's the exciting element of access to a much broader range of titles that might otherwise require a lot of effort to find. These include papers and magazines from cities, states, and
countries all over the globe. This is the so-called Information Age in action.
Online publications are, in fact, one of the hottest types of Web sites. As such, there are many of them, so I urge you to go exploring and find ones that meet your interests, as well as those offered here, for the purpose of design commentary and
learning.
First up is the Tucson Weekly Online, a small-town paper that has captured national attention for a number of reasons, including the discussion here: navigation. Large amounts of data require user-friendly, intelligent means of maneuvering the space,
and the Tucson Weekly provides a very admirable example.
Next up is Word, a very popular 'zine that is a fine study of interface development. This extends the more specific ideas of navigation into a broader-spectrum learning for the designer: How to drive content by understanding how to contain it.
The Boston Phoenix's online offering is visually rich, with many beautifully designed image maps. Client-sided mapping is becoming the popular choice. You'll walk through an example of how to do this with the marvelous program MapEdit, available on the
accompanying CD ROM.
The next publication on the rack is The Brink, a 'zine that seeks to exploit hypermedia in artistic and cutting-edge ways. How can you use the Web as an artistic medium? Find out as I explore this on-the-edge online creation. On the more traditional
front, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune offers up an attractive site with a variety of highlights, including downloadable movie clips.
Out.com is an alternative magazine that not only represents community, but fosters it via its interactive, global messaging forums. Designers wishing to implement this type of technology have the opportunity to think about some of the conceptual ways to
present such forums. Do you think conversation might get scalding on an interactive system? It's always far above room temperature at the Phoenix New Times Online, which teaches how to keep content hot by making sure it's fresh.
La Nacion Online is one of Argentina's contributions to the global mien, and text alternatives and consistent navigation are discussed as you'll tour their contemporary site. MoJo Wire is an example of appropriate design, a simple-but-effective approach
to making sure just the right amount of color and design enhances, but does not detract, from written content.
The last page of this tour is Dark Alliances, a journalist's project that is a fine example of what has been termed Way New Media. This is the combination of journalism with interactive, multiple medias. Dark Alliances provides a comprehensive
look at how that can be done while maintaining respect and consideration for the variety of Web browsers and visitors.
Figure 3.1. Splash page of the Tucson Weekly.
It has been said that small businesses move more quickly when it comes to progressive ideas. When the Internet began its first public-at-large gurgling in 1994, the Tucson Weekly paid attention. By July of 1995, the first version of the Tucson
Weekly Online had been published, and it has been published every Wednesday since then, without fail. It is a tribute to new media at its finest. Often opinionated but resoundingly thought-provoking, the content is perfect for the information-hungry news
hounds on the Web. Sensibly but attractively designed, the Weekly embodies new media theory as well as strongly embracing mindful, individually expressed Web technology.
The Tucson Weekly Online is strong in a variety of areas, but what first makes it stand out among online publications is its brilliant navigation. Sweeping industry award categories and receiving acclaim from harsh critics such as Internet
World's Dr. Joel Snyder, the Tucson Weekly Online has forced even the most trenchant of Web watchers to take notice.
New media is the combination of more traditional media with interactivity. One of the most often overlooked ways of creating effective interaction between viewers and a Web site is by offering compelling navigation features. This is certainly one
of the reasons the Tucson Weekly Online has been pointed to as an example of great design, and is a primary aspect of why it was chosen for this book.
The power lies in the site's combination of linear and tangential options. What this means in ready terms is that there is a way to interact with the online version of the Weekly as you would with more familiar written media, as well as a more
choice-driven, interactive method to enjoy the site.
Essentially, the Tucson Weekly Online offers sections, much as a daily paper does, and the ability to read each by paging through in a linear fashion. Upon examination of the design, you will find that the paper offers a variety of different methods of
surveying the content, and that these methods expand and demonstrate the power of this new medium.
This main level hierarchy is sensible in that it provides a very accessible, easy-to-relate-with, top-level arrangement. Within that structure, there is another linear, left-to-right structure that most newspaper readers will be familiar with: the page
forward, page back option. (See Figure 3.2.) This allows for virtual paging through the paper, just as one would do over a tree-and-ink–based version with a cup of morning coffee.
Figure 3.2. Page forward, page back navigation on Tucson Weekly.
Now there's an opportunity to get a little adventurous in your travels and take one of the side road navigation options. Let's move in to view one important deviation from linear methodology into a technique that would be otherwise impossible in print
media. The Last Week/Next Week option, as shown in Figure 3.3, allows for an individual to follow a column or series as far back, and as far forward, up to the current issue, as he would like.
Figure 3.3. The Last Week/Next Week option.
Along with the Forward/Back, Last Week/Next Week, there is the Current Week" option, as also seen in Figure 3.3. This option allows a person to jump from any article or section back to this week's edition. This is very convenient—instead of
the individual having to page from a 1995 feature all the way through time— he can simply jump ahead to the present should he so choose.
To add to the tangential internal navigation, there is the vertical menu bar, shown in Figure 3.4, which runs along the right edge of each page. This gives a visitor the opportunity to jump to another section of the publication from any point in his
experience. Adding significant choices, this interactive opportunity allows visitors to experience the site in as unique and personal a fashion as possible.
Figure 3.4. Right menu bar, providing even more navigational options.
In general, non-linear environments are not a ready thing for occidental minds to immediately grasp. Accustomed to linear logic, you and I read left to right, and live within a hierarchically structured environment.
The Weekly's non-linear structure came out of an unusual event that the Tucson Weekly's designer Wil Gerken describes as "inspirational." While playing with computer games on an old Atari, he began to notice the way the joystick could move.
"...then I thought about what I started calling joystick navigation" he told me. "Linear paging forward and back and now an up/down motion in the form of last week/next week options."
Other, more technical terms for this approach would now be "threaded column" or "daisy-chain" navigation. This approach is of critical importance for Web designers to notice because not only does it relate strongly to the earliest
intentions of the Web's development, but it works more effectively with human memory.
Hypertext promoted the ability to footnote academic documents by linking the referenced text to the originals electronically. It is this concept and the Internet platform that Web designers are using as an entire foundation for the building of a new
medium. Exploiting the Internet's hypertext strengths—tangents and layers of information rather than linear presentation—is part of the challenge and the benefit to the designer!
Interestingly enough, linear information is antithetical to human thought and memory. Proof positive of this lies in any conversation that people have together. Do you follow only one thought? No! You might start out talking about the weekend, but then
you talk about another subject, and another, naturally moving from issue to issue with ease. This is non-linear, and it is much more natural than the imposition of linear media that is so prevalent in our culture.
So why on earth does this matter? For the Web designer, it matters a great deal, because he or she must understand something of the way the human mind works. This allows for the creation of navigation that makes sense to people. This understanding helps
a designer take advantage of the additional value found in hypermedia—and, perhaps most important in terms of method—know how to effectively create tools and solutions for the challenges that arise within this unusual environment.
When it comes to method, Gerken was faced with yet another task. How would he take this seemingly complex mix of large data and non-linear tangents and create an opportunity to make it work quickly and effectively?
This is where Web developers can take added inspiration from Gerken. Frustrated with what he was able to find in terms of a quick processing, commercial program for HTML documents and related attributes for the Web, he did what all visionary programmers
would have done: He built the tools himself.
"Once I had a basic flowchart of navigation," he says, "I realized this was going to be quite a task! I had to figure out some way to automate the process. From that realization I wrote the early version of Dispatch, which is now used to
process a number of online publications by quickly and effectively handling all the HTML conversion and navigational elements."
Dispatch is a proprietary program—Gerken isn't giving away any industry secrets—but he does allow that it is part of an electronic publishing process that begins with the native Quark documents and ends with HTML documents fully coded to his
brand of clean style and design.
Then, there are links—the heart and soul of the Web's functional hypertext environment. The Tucson Weekly has made very wise choices regarding how these links are managed, both internally and to external sites. Again, Gerken was faced with the need
to manage a great deal of data. It became obvious that writing his own program would allow a great deal more control over his work.
Linktionary (see Figure 3.5) is another of Gerken's programs that automates the process. Basically a large database of current Web URLs, Linktionary searches the text for possible link opportunities. A human hand is required for further edits, because
Gerken has yet to write an intelligence agent that can determine the difference between Alice and Gary Cooper!
Figure 3.5. Source code from the Tucson Weekly showing time and date stamps from Linktionary processing.
Web sites are constantly evolving, or they should be! It is new information, additions of technologies and solutions to technical problems that allow for growth and change in this young environment. In order to keep content fresh, and experience the joy
of the Web as it grows, creators of Web sites must always seek original ways to enhance the work they are doing.
For the Tucson Weekly, this means evaluation and reevaluation of the site's navigation and use of the hypertext medium. It also means the development of faster, better, and more effective tools to manage large data. The Weekly, and the publishing
industry, can only benefit from the fruits of these Web labors.
Word is best described as a visionary exploration of the online communications experience. Embracing the visual, the verbal, the auditory—Word succeeds largely because it knows why it exists. Word is familiar with its audience, and the
technologists and artists behind the publication understand how to take that familiarity and communicate through a physical and content-based interface that makes sense.
Marisa Bowe is the editor-in-chief of Word. "I could count the people (on the Web) on one hand that are innovative with interface and content" she observes. "A sonnet is a technology or interface—using a printed page to put a series
of ideas in the reader's mind. Most people aren't thinking of interface as potential for structure."
The user interface is very often a major point of success or failure for Web designers. Without an interface that's consistent with the content, that is easy to use, and perhaps, most importantly, enjoyable to use, a site can readily fall short of its
greater potential. I see this all too often with the best of Web-based publications.
Word's interface makes sense. Each individual section and article in essence becomes its own environment, the objective being to design around the content, not allowing the design to restrain or dictate how the content is expressed.
Web designers must know some basic facts before embarking on interface design. Intent, which I define as the major purpose of a site, ideally determines how the site will develop. This is especially true when dealing with magazines or newspapers online,
largely because there is a lot of data, and that data needs to be organized to make sense.
How do you find intent? If you're developing a commercial Web site, discussions with the client will reveal his or her desires in terms of what results are desired from the ultimate site. Intent could be point of sales, or perhaps the idea is to present
a certain image for a given business or organization. Still another would be the provision of customer service on the Web—accessible to customers 24 hours a day.
Just how intent drives a Web site's content is demonstrated when each of these potentials is looked at individually. Say my client wants to sell products. The issue of selling alone demands that the content of the Web site contain certain features; in
this case, some kind of order form or catalog-style interface will be required. Organizational image is also desired. If the organization is a toxic waste management company, I'm going to want to be sure to include information on how that company helps the
environment. If the intent is to provide customer service, the content is going to be organized based on the services offered, and there will be plenty of feedback options available.
Word's primary intent is an intimate, creative communication with others on the Web. Bowe describes Word's intent: "I wanted to provide a series of windows into other people's lives from various angles. The first-person stories where maybe someone
has had an experience, or difficulty." The way that this intent has driven content with Word is found with its stimulating interface. (See Figure 3.7.) Interface helps make the content interactive, offering visitors options and opportunities to
explore, thereby becoming involved with the work as a full participant.
Figure 3.7. This creative interface tells the story of three artists and their personal journey through the Guyana jungles.
In any situation where the objective is to communicate some idea, whether it be the quality of a product or the intimacy of a personal journey, knowing my audience is going to empower me to make that communication all the more effective.
Bowe is very in touch with Word's audience, which teaches us just how that familiarity can help us succeed when creating Web content. "Word is for the 'zine crowd," she says. "For people who would like the band Nirvana. They're
sophisticated, but jaded before they're five."
How does a Web designer determine audience? That information is also found with the people involved with a given Web site's arrival on the scene. If you're interested in creating your own Web site for personal or creative purposes, the intended audience
is going to lie within you. Are you a work-at-home father, who wishes to share helpful information or ideas with other dads working from the home? Maybe you are a poet and want to publish your poetry on the Web. Information will dictate a user-friendly,
straightforward interface for easy access to the data. Creative art will often allow for creative uses of access, because the audience is going to be interested in creativity!
If you're working in a commercial mien, having to work with a client to determine his or her intent and audience requires asking a series of important questions:
Who is your current audience? (For example: purchasers of goods or users of services.)
What type of media have you created in the past? Television, print advertising, brochures? How have things served you and your customers?
What is the voice you use to speak with your customer? Are you a "Family Business?" A slick corporation? An alternative newsmagazine?
Are you looking to change your current customer demographic with the Web, or are you looking for the same type of customer?
How does technology affect your image now, and how do you think it will affect your image in the future?
These questions will help you and your customer explore critical areas that relate to how presentations will be made to an audience. Write or record your conversations, and refer to your notes regularly during the development of the Web site in
question.
"I figure there's more than enough information and data in the world at this point. What's missing is getting insight into experiences psychologically. How do people survive daily life? Rather than give advice, I want to provide a series of windows
into other people's lives from various angles.
What a radical thing, I think, to actually just tell the truth. We don't have lifestyle or celebrities to sell. Intimacy...what fascinates me is the intimacy. I try to convey that on Word. People who are talking because they have something to say."
This visually striking site is an excellent example of high quality graphic design that creates upbeat, fun, and enticing environments for delivery of information and entertainment.
One way the Boston Phoenix has made good use of the visual is by setting up splash pages for each of its sections. These pages invariably use graphics that combine colorized photographic elements broken up by space, as shown in Figure 3.8.
Figure 3.8. The Arts and Entertainment page on Boston Phoenix, showing colorized photographic elements.
What's important about these graphics is not only that they are expressing their related area's intent visually, but they are fully functional image maps.
At the time of this writing, the Boston Phoenix—as have many pages on the Web—has chosen to stay with server-sided image maps. These are mapped images that call out to the server using a CGI script to process the coordinates that allow us to
use the image as navigable, or "hot" media. Adding client-sided maps—maps that are interpreted by the local browser rather than the distant server—can help in several ways.
Every time a browser has to make a server request, well, that takes time! If the browser is requesting local information, it's going to be much faster to get that data to the viewer. Another strong feature of client mapping is that it allows you to
identify the hot area's link.
In Figure 3.9, you see the Boston Phoenix's server-sided map through the Netscape browser. Notice along the lower-left corner that as I pass the mouse over a hot section, the map coordinates can be read. With a Client-sided image map, the browser
interprets the map to identify what area you want to go by providing the link's URL. This helps make navigation much more user-friendly.
Figure 3.9. Server-sided map coordinates.
Technology has come a long way in the past year. There are many powerful commercial and shareware tools for both the PC and the Macintosh that do the hard work for you. One such tool for the PC is MapEdit, a compact, very reliable
shareware product that can be found on the accompanying CD-ROM. Certain HTML editing packages, such as Microsoft's popular FrontPage and Macromedia's Backstage, also offer Client-side image mapping features.
You'll need to select an image that makes logical sense to map. As can be seen with Boston Phoenix, their mapped images are broken up into fields. An image with distinct areas is going to be much more easy to deal with than an image without clearly
defined areas.
With a tool like MapEdit, the process is quite simple:
MapEdit and other such tools allow you to test your maps during the process. However, it's also a good idea to test them in your browser. Simply open the HTML file that contains the map data and see how it works.
Figure 3.10. The Boston Phoenix home page.
The Boston Phoenix offers some terrific design that makes the site visually enjoyable. The content is fresh and interesting, gracing the Web with a very worthwhile effort. The addition of client-mapping will enable the intelligent graphics on this site
to truly shine.
If the desire is to create a Web site for the sake of art, The Brink stands as an excellent example of one approach. An impressive aspect of the Brink is its continual challenge to Web design standards. So few exist to begin with. Well, it's humorous
and compelling to find a publication that really exploits hypermedia and interactivity with little regard to the constraints that guide the Web.
Although I wouldn't recommend this method for anyone getting into publications or Web design for commercial or broad spectrum audiences, as an exercise in art, a magazine of this ilk is truly a departure from the norm. It most certainly pushes the
cutting edge, hence the name, The Brink.
Perhaps this renegade behavior embodies the Web in many ways because it embraces the idea that information on the Internet should be vast, free, and diverse. Even as the Web becomes more and more popular for mainstream use, there will be a place for the
alternative electric magazine. Artists, musicians, and publishers who want environments that fall outside the range of what is available in the mainstream will turn back toward this original idea of alternative 'zines.
Typically, this could be cause for criticism rather than praise, but I felt that it would be a good example of what can be done by people less interested in the rules and more interested in the artistic potential of the Web. After all, if people don't
seek to push the limits, what opportunities to discover new territories can exist?
For the Web designer looking to use hypermedia as art, go back again to the critical lesson that an understanding of the Web's tangential opportunities strengthens the ability to find techniques that work well within the medium.
To understand a few concepts, I'd like to walk you through a non-technical experiment in hypermedia design. You'll need two items to begin, including small slips of paper or index cards, and a pen.
On one of the cards or pieces of paper, write your first name. Then, on each of the next cards, write down the following:
Now place the first piece of paper on the floor, your name in the center, any random three papers above it, to the side of it, and below it, creating a grid.
Now, read the words starting at the left corner, working your way left to right as though reading a book. This should be the familiar, easiest route. But then, begin approaching different words first, and following random patterns, reading the words
aloud. Sometimes it will sound funny, other times you'll stumble across meanings that work.
This tiered approach demonstrates how hypertext works at its most basic level. Imagine what happens as these layers expand in every direction? Move these layers from two-dimensional space into the conceptual three dimensions created by networks of
computers, phone lines, and satellite systems, and you end up with the Web—an environment of many doorways, options, and methods of getting from one place to another. There is no definable center, but it is woven together by its relationship to
individual pieces within the grander whole. Moreover, there are new pieces being welcomed on a minute-to- minute basis!
Joy McCrary's "Transposition" is a great experiment in the use of interactive hypermedia. For artists interested in creating non-linear presentations, "Transposition" stands as a perfect example.
Every line in her poem is linked to another section of the poem. We move through the poem linearly from beginning to "end." But then, you begin to "loop" around conceptually, and revisit old phrases as well as exploring new thoughts
not seen on the linear path. You can get a glimpse of this in the grid of images taken from her poem pages. (See Figure 3.11.)
Figure 3.11. Montage of Joy McCrary's "Transposition," a poem exploiting hypermedia's power.
Just when you think you're lost in a tangent of weird, sub-pop culture madness, the Brink turns the tide and changes your direction. After a journey through hypermedia as just demonstrated, The Brink will pull individual pieces of the magazine
together—seaming one artist's work with another, creating an entirely new, blended piece of art. This is where the Brink's true brilliance lies. It would be difficult, if not impossible to create synthesis between entirely, downright antithetical
concepts, or ideas, in a linear medium. On the Brink, you are captivated by the bizarre as well as the intriguing ideas generated by way of new media.
Figure 3.12. The home page of Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune.
Because content for daily newspapers is generated by a full staff of writers, artists, editors, and sundry contributors, it's logical that the articles, editorials, and commentary would, in many cases, simply be shifted to the Web. The Star
Tribune, as do most of the publications featured here, certainly does this.
There is an area for special projects on the Star Tribune that stands out as being a general wisdom for all online publications taking material from traditional media. By giving space on the Web for identity unique to the Web, readers are offered
a reason, in addition to ease, access, and comfort of electronic news—more cool information that might not normally be as flexible in its paper state.
A prime example of this is the downloadable .avi of a series of photos taken from the Star Tribune in the spring of 1996. The paper followed the budding of a silver maple tree, offering a photograph each day for a series of 32 days.
Video presents unique challenges for the Web. Technologies exist to create highest-quality video, but one major problem is delivering large files quickly over the Internet. To do so requires advanced compression techniques, clipping of video size, and
careful selection of the subject— the more detail and action, the more memory involved. Because of these reasons, there is inevitable loss of quality when compression is applied.
There are two primary actions of video on the Web. One is the video file that must be downloaded and played by a helper application, which is an additional piece of software that the browser calls up to run the video. Inline video is becoming more
popular. This is when the video information is handled by the Web browser itself.
For now, I'd like to focus on video formats that are available to the Web developer for offering compressed video format files that allow for downloadable real-time life for visitors to enjoy. Some of these formats, including AVI (see Figure 3.13), are
employed as inline by some browsers, and some contain audio compression mechanisms as well.
Figure 3.13. The budding silver maple tree AVI, as shown through the Internet Explorer browser.
A rundown of the most common file formats that are used to deliver video over the Web include
A great deal of links to technical information about these formats can be found by pointing your Web browser at http://www.webreference.com/multimedia/video.html.
The Web offers the opportunity not only to capture day-to-day events, but to keep them alive and use them in intelligent, opportunistic fashions. The concept of this project within a strong Web site such as the Star Tribune points to the clever
way in which technology enhances simple experiences by keeping them alive, and accessible, in a clever, idealistic expression.
Figure 3.14. Out.com's colorful interface.
Life and lifestyle of an international subculture is expressed on this site with incredible grace, indisputable style, and no apologies. Taking issues regarding sexuality—issues that might normally be difficult to express in mainstream
media—Out.com focuses on high culture, beautiful fashion, quality of life, society, news and information on world health without ever falling into discriminatory or inappropriately explicit expression.
Various sponsored events, social groups, surveys, hot Web sites of note, regional forums and global forums make up Out.com's community area. The social groups are, in fact, interactive forums that include areas for discussions about couples, people of
color, teen support, and a clean and sober area. The focus is on how to live life well, safely, and happily.
That the Web should be a gathering place for international communities is a powerful tribute to its innate power. Furthermore, this kind of interaction counteracts the pervasive, and important, trend in the use of the Web as a mass media. Both aspects
are critical for the Web's survival. Out.com is a fine example of offering community-based information, education, and opportunities.
Modem fans of some years will remember the BBS craze, which has taken a backseat to the glitz of the Internet in the past two years. BBSs, or Bulletin Board Services, are also found on commercial services such as America Online and Microsoft Network.
Another version of this type of interactivity would be Internet newsgroups.
These services provide areas where people can "post" notes to one another, and to the general visiting public, on a given topic or special interest. On the Web, interactive forums are becoming more and more visible as the technology to handle
them is more stable.
Typically, interactive forums use CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts to communicate with the Web server responsible for running the forum software. Other instances of interactive forums are being developed using Web-based programming technologies
such as Java and ActiveX.
Forums are the essence of Web community, as you see with Out.com Figure 3.15. Not only do they supply the vital interactive component for successful Web sites, they also offer a place to express individual ideas, argue, give feedback to Web developers
or interest group moderators, or the public at large.
Figure 3.15. Interactive forum on Out.com. Note the combination of Spanish and English language posts.
Messages posted to forums are usually handled in one of two ways: Information is posted freely with no one controlling the posts that appear; or posts are reviewed by a moderator before being placed for the general public to see.
For Web developers interested in forums, the choice as to moderated or unmoderated is an important one. Give people an opportunity, and some are likely to exploit it. This is very often the case with Web forums, so planning for moderation on commercial
or wide-audience sites can be a good idea. Costs will typically be higher for moderated forums because they necessitate the involvement of personal time.
Unmoderated forums can also be powerful reinforcements in democratic society, or create the opportunity for people in nondemocratic countries to get information they might otherwise be unable to access. If you are developing a forum with a particular
desire to support First-Amendment–style rights, unmoderated is the way to go. Sometimes a middle ground can be achieved, with a forum generally going unmoderated but under a watchful eye willing to pull posts that are unduly offensive or
inappropriate.
Out.com embraces and embodies the Web in its finest form. Communication, self-expression, global integration, and human interactivity coexist with art, fashion, politics, and medicine. A very strong Web site with real soul.
You've already seen the power of content and clean navigation from one Arizona paper. Phoenix New Times is yet another excellent opportunity to enjoy both, with expanded coverage of the Phoenix area people, politics, arts, and entertainment.
Figure 3.16. Phoenix New Times home page.
Perhaps it is the desert that makes these Arizona publications sizzle, or maybe it's the corrupt politics, clashing of cultures, and historically rebellious nature of the American West. The fact remains that no single area, despite many good
publications, can boast two online, independent newsweeklies such as The Tucson Weekly and Phoenix New Times. Each is produced with high-style, interesting content and fiery design by Web creators down there in the heat.
What's specifically fun about the Phoenix New Times Online is that it departs from its paper parent and is updated, according to its editors, "whenever news breaks." This compelling idea exploits the power of the 24-hour-a-day electronic
medium, instead of waiting until next week, when news about Arizona Governor Fife Symington's latest legal scandal has already raised the eyebrows higher (if such a thing is possible!) of Arizona citizens.
Nothing is more stale in the information age than week-old news, and Phoenix New Times Online has chosen to embrace the opportunity of keeping its paper fresh and clean.
For the smaller commercial Web site, fresh content can be costly, although from a Web designer's standpoint, regularly updated content is a must. It keeps people coming back to a site. It is invigorating and enjoyable.
That newspapers such as Phoenix New Times actually think about the updated content shows not only how important updates are, but also flexes the muscles of the Web's power over print, which is a static media.
Even with the most simple and inexpensively produced Web site, something on it should—must—change to keep it interesting. The simplest way to make that happen is to write regular updates into a Web design contract, or offer the client the
option to do the updates themselves. Sometimes this is the most effective method, although not everyone is equipped to make changes or allow specialized access for a given client.
With newspapers, fresh content is part of the process, as seen with the regular rotation of writers and regionally interesting articles such as Greg McNamee's intriguing "Titan Missile Museum" in the Phoenex New Times. (See Figure 3.17.) This
brings another solution to mind, and that is to have a base of information that can easily be rotated. Instead of having to write, code, and design new pages, a piece is pulled from the base into the site with very little time consumption.
Figure 3.17. Cover of "Mondo Arizona" and the "Titan Missile Museum" article header.
To wrap it up, Phoenix New Times Online sizzles for its exceptional understanding of the importance of staying on top of changing data. There are a few more reasons why this is a great read—you'll find them on your own, the least reason being that
this fine online newspaper comes forth from one of the hottest places on earth.
The challenge was to find an international, non-English daily or weekly newspaper online that has good quality design, effective, clear presentation, and is contemporary in its construct—good use of tables for column control, graphical elements
selected with care and style.
Figure 3.18. La Nacion On Line.
I visited a lot of international publication sites, including newspapers in Africa, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the Americas. I found many content-rich sites that spoke of world politics and issues of extreme importance, but this site has the most
care, consideration, and professional expression out of all the sites I looked at.
At first it seemed unfair to leave out sites that are undeniably important to world culture because of limited Web design. But the deciding point is simple: If a group has the resources to be on the Web, they have the resources to do their
homework while on the Web. There truly is plenty of information out there on how to make a publication strong not only in content, but in layout and design as well—and this information is free to those with access! I wanted to find something where
someone had really done their homework and had thought extensively about the importance of design elements in the creation of effective Web publications.
Fortunately, I found La Nacion On Line (also written "La Nacion Line"), a daily newspaper in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This Spanish-language paper is quite interesting to browse. Of course, it helps if you understand the language, at least a
little bit! Even without understanding Spanish, the navigation and layout is sensible and familiar enough that it communicates the gist of its statement.
I speak a lot about navigation throughout this book, and especially this chapter. It's no small wonder, because navigation is a basic necessity for Web sites. Navigation is also a challenging problem for designers because, typically, they want to give
the visitor options, but also create a certain experience, or direction, for the concepts within the Web site to be well understood.
La Nacion by no means falls short of providing all the pieces required for good navigation. The challenge, then, is creating a standard for the site.
The current navigational components on La Nacion include
All in all, this makes up a set of comprehensive navigational elements. But what begins to happen in La Nacion is that only the first component is available on every page, and other options disappear!. It would be helpful to add the help button to a
page that includes the navigation tips on every page.
Web designers take note: When planning navigation, be certain to remain consistent. There are very few, if any, reasons to leave out a navigational element on a given page.
It is still also very wise to add the text options to every page of a Web site. Although this is becoming less and less of a problem in the United States, where access to better computers and browsers is the rule rather than the exception, for areas
where there is likely to be a lot of text-only Internet access, these options are a must! For most Spanish-speaking countries, the need for text access remains high.
La Nacion is undeniably strong and moving gracefully forward in a competitive mien. It is a well-maintained paper, each visit is met with the correct news of the day, and few, if any, technical problems, other than slow loading times (the result, in
this case, of distance, not optimization). With a rational layout, conservative, but effective look and feel, and interesting content, this is an enjoyable, informative, and useful publication.
One added extra: Click "Portada del Dia" from the home page for a look at the actual daily paper edition's cover for that day. It's fun to compare the online version to the offline one!
Mother Jones Magazine takes to the Web with as much venomous bite as the print version. (See Figure 3.19.) This no-holds-barred, political, environmental, electronic magazine is bull-dog relentless, and a strong proclamation that democracy is alive and
well somewhere in the ethers.
Figure 3.19. MoJo Wire's Masthead.
Make no mistake: MoJo Wire gives the conservative viewpoint an opportunity to talk back, exploiting the best of Web technologies by offering a way for others to scream, yell, hoot, and holler their opinions before the entire world. It's cathartic, it's
informative, it's downright entertaining.
Frankly, not much. But listen, that's what makes it work. A Web site geared to this kind of content can't pull out hoops, bells, and whistles that are inappropriate. That's not what Web design is all about. Readers who have followed anything I've
written so far are sure to remember my dominant cry "intent drives content." And so it is with MoJo Wire. Designers simply cannot go overboard sometimes. That's an important lesson. Let the material guide you, always. With sites like Word,
experimentation is justified. MoJo Wire has issues to pound, so they get right to the pounding.
This is not to say that MoJo Wire is bad design. It isn't, not by a long shot, or it would never have made it to this book. The point is that it's appropriate design. The magazine is well laid out, keeping sections simple, using tables, frames,
or plain pages accordingly.
All design content should be dictated by two things: intent of the site, and intended audience. When you know these facts, you have half of the work done—seriously! A large part of the battle in creating great Web sites has to do with knowing how
they'll be received by the people you're setting out to present them to.
With MoJo Wire, the intent is to present politically compelling news stories. The audience is made up mostly of U.S. democrats and independents, with a minority of more conservative but curious or debate-happy personalities.
When creating a Web site, you must ask these pertinent questions, and do it before, not after, you've begun working on content and layout.
Once these things are determined, you can move into looking at specific ways of representing those needs. In the case of MoJo Wire, the simple graphics, easy-on-the-eyes layout incorporating plenty of white space, and easy navigation make this site
appealing because the focus is off of the design and on to the content!
Certainly MoJo Wire, and its parent, Mother Jones, have long held a reputation for being extremely outspoken regarding their particular brand of opinion. What is extremely exciting about having this kind of publication on the Web has to do with putting
ideas out there to be enjoyed, believed, disagreed with, or even hated. It's important stuff because it makes people think, makes people work a little harder to determine what to believe, and, more importantly, why they believe.
Unlike other Web sites within "Sites That Speak," this is not a full paper or magazine. It is, instead, a special project written by journalist Gary Webb and laid out by multimedia designer Albert Poon.
It is so astonishing in its content and powerful in design that it speaks quite loudly on its own, even though its origins are with the San Jose Mercury Online—quite a decent site in its own right, which can be found at http://www.sjmercury.com/index.htm.
The subject is drugs, in particular, crack-cocaine, and the story that Gary Webb uncovers is so frightening and real that merely commenting on it in a book cannot come close to the online experience. This site is a must-visit. It is the perfect example
of what investigative reporting will be. And it's here now.
While much can be learned from the excellent multimedia presentation of this progressive project, what must be flagged for Web designers is how the developers of this site have created a variety of choices for the audience, as shown in Figure 3.20.
Figure 3.20. Main page of Dark Alliances. Note Shocked or UnShocked options.
Many current designers will argue that because both Netscape and Internet Explorer are now widely available, the browser issue is solved. Well, it isn't solved, and even if it were, the Web embraces choice. Even if people support frames or Shockwave,
some are on slower connections or just don't like a style of presenting—this is particularly true of framed sites.
So, is the Web designer supposed to try and make everyone happy? Well, I think that in many cases he or she should. What Dark Alliances has done is ensured that people without tables, frames, or Shockwave can fully experience the content of the
site—which is what is at issue here. The intent is not to sell a product, but, rather, to uncover the truth about a very profound social issue.
The question for the Web designer, then, goes back to audience and intent. If your Web site is aimed at a message, my advice is to make sure that message gets read. If this means leaving advanced technologies out of the picture, so be it. By the same
token, the added power of sound and advanced design can really enhance the drama of a given situation. Dark Alliances shows us how a balance can be achieved—by combining technology, a powerful message, and user options, you have a potent expression
and a site that truly speaks.
Have you gotten your fill of this chapter's design news? Here are the top headlines once again:
The next chapter features art, culture, and the humanities. Tuck your newspaper or magazine aside and put your walking shoes on. Chapter 4, "Sites that Teach: Arts, Culture, and the Humanities," is a virtual guide through some of the best visual art museums, cultural caches, and esthetically pleasing sites on the Web!
