Information Design and Architecture Examples
This page will list examples of effective information design and architecture identified by members, with annotations suggesting the underlying principles. Undated examples posted December 2005.
Resources for this study
Business Week IDSA award. http://www.idsa.org/idea/idea2005/
Blogs used in business
Examples of blogs on corporate and non-profit association sites for building relationships and traffic to the site, rather than one-way communication.
www.sdn.sap.com
http://www.blogbusinesssummit.com/
http://www.shareyourstory.org/ (March of Dimes)
http://hyku.com/blog/
http://www.ideagrove.com/blog/
http://theworldisnotflat.com/
http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/
http://talk.bmc.com/blogs/blog-gentle/anne-gentle/
http://www.boeing.com/randy/ - Blog of a VP at Boeing
http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/ - Blog of Bob Lutz, GM Vice Chairman
http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan - Blog of Jonathan Schwartz, Sun CEO
Library metadata trends and techniques by Thom Hickey
http://outgoing.typepad.com/outgoing/
Lorcan Dempsey's weblog
http://orweblog.oclc.org/
025.431 The Dewey blog
http://ddc.typepad.com/
Content management for websites
The Nebraska County Extension offices have a content management system that allows them to put up a standard website. The online help is on a University of Nebraska server: http://cowebhelp.unl.edu.
Dynamic websites supporting multiple contributors
Dynamic site supporting multiple contributors--examples:
Boxes and Arrows http://www.boxesandarrows.com/
A List Apart http://www.alistapart.com
Adaptive Path http://adaptivepath.com/
ParticleTree http://particletree.com/
Forums used in business
http://www.textdrive.com Forum
http://www.moogmusic.com Mooger Forum
Interactive learning experiences on narrow topics
Interactive map of some English parks:
http://www.greengrid.co.uk/xMap.html
Interactive tabs on damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/multimedia/index.html
http://www.explorelearning.com/
Annotated video in the "clips" section of http://www.verbnow.com.
Interface design
Examples of interface design, May 2005 except as noted:
http://www.bobschneidermusic.com
http://www.personalworldmap.org/ Posted July 2005.
http://www.tlp.com, Tracy Locke agency
Navigation methods
A network map of current headlines, companies, and topics: http://tinyurl.com/7hqr4. Select an items and the network map is redrawn around that item, or view the current headlines in a heat map, or traditional bulleted lists.
Pictures representing the world today, with headlines and links to summaries: http://www.tenbyten.org. Posted January 2006.
A timely spatial map:
http://news.com.com/2001-11386_3-0.html?tag=ne.tab.hd. Posted January 2006.
Spatial maps:
http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm. Aggregates news. Posted January 2006.
A site that Jared Spool has reported does well in tests with users: http://www.mcmaster-carr.com. Posted December 2005.
Visual information
Examples: http://infosthetics.com/. Posted August, 2005
Visualization of data:
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap/ and other projects
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/research/visualization.shtml. Posted January 2006.
Websites
http://www.allieddomecq.com/. A corporate site with effective presentation, structure, and information. Posted January 2006.
http://www.homedepot.com. Compare the merchandising site with the corporate site that presents information about the business and note their relationship. Posted January 2006.
http://www.6newslawrence.com/weather/. Try print preview and a hand-held device if possible. Posted January 2006.