Week #2: Favorite web sites

One of my favorite web sites is http://www.snopes.com/ , the Snopes Urban Legends site. Content-wise, it is a fascinating collection of urban myths, fables, misunderstandings and outright lies whose circulation has been greatly facilitated by the advent of e-mail and the Internet. Rumors that once-upon-a-time may have taken years to spread and achieve the critical mass that provides them with a sense of credibility can now achieve that status in weeks or days. It is a glorious site to visit to while away some time or to be reminded that P. T. Barnum was entirely correct when assessing the birth rate of suckers.

From a design perspective, the Snopes site is focused on frill-free functionality. The intro page contains a list of the categories of tales stored on the site described by a word or two and a little icon. E.g.:
Love
Both icon and keyword serve as hyperlinks to the category page. There, the category is broken down further into more specific topics with a list of text hyperlinks. Finally, following one of those links takes you to a list of actual stories. This works very well, I think - I can usually find interesting tales in areas of interest without having to wander lost for very long.

I suspect that the authors of the site opted for a fairly simple layout because these pages are frequently printed. Sure, they could create a separate "printer-friendly" page, but a simple, clutter-free main page kills two birds with one stone.

A second extremely useful site is the C-NET Security Center, which addresses such computer security issues as viruses, scams and operating system vulnerabilities. It is highly useful whenever I get one of those panic-filled spammed e-mails:

Subject: OMG new virus EATS ur HD READ THIS NOW!!!! then send it to every1 u know!!

I visit this site to see if there really is a problem. Often, the e-mail IS the virus, and sending it on to other people is the last thing one should do with it. In case of a legitimate threat, the site typically has accurate, easy-to-follow instructions as to how to avoid or remove the cybernasty.

The main page is organized as blocks of hyperlinks, with each block consisting of a topic area. The site also features pictures, some as essential content and some (I suspect) just because they are nice to look at and break up the otherwise unrelieved columns of text. There is also a site search box for those occasions when you have a specific topic in mind and no particular inclination to browse.

The threat descriptions and cures are laid out in a single standard format, which makes them easier to read once one has become familiar with the format.

A third useful site is TigerDirect, the web site of one of the larger on-line computer product sales companies. They recently reorganized the index page. It used to have a single left-hand menu with a large frame in the center of the page for page content, as the non-index pages do now. Instead, the title page now contains several rows of ads for specials, followed by lists of products broken down by category. This is a vast improvement because the old index used a single alphabetical list - items were not especially easy to find.

TigerDirect is a great place to browse for new product, including pictures, diagrams and good technical explanations of the feqatures and compatibility of the items they sell. This is a typical product page from their on-line catalog - in this case, a printer.

A search box and a site map round out the site's navigation features. In my opinion, this is an excellent commercial site.