We had several web sites to view this week. The first I looked at was InfoCamp located at http://infocamp.info/. InfoCamp is an open conference that allows people who are enthusiastic about information to congregate so that they can join forces compare ideas and form a community. InfoCamp welcomes people from a wide range of fields such as library and information science, information architecture, taxonomy, user experience, user-centered design, information management, human-centered design and engineering, human-computer interaction, and more. InfoCamp was founded in Seattle in 2007 and had its most recent meeting on October 2nd through the 3rd in 2010. There have also been camps in Berkeley, California and Berlin, Germany. The site was great to look at and very easy to navigate. It also provided many ways of communicating such as Twitter, Facebook and a blog.
The second site I looked at was Digital Web Magazine at http://www.digital-web.com/. While this site has ceased operating and providing up to date information, it is still a great example of web design and information architecture. I really liked how the articles were arranged and enjoyed reading some of them such as “Getting the most out of your library” and “Information Architecture as an Extension of Web Design”. I was actually surprised that it was not being updated anymore as it seemed like an excellent site that had a lot of info to provide and I’m sure it was a great source in its day.
The third site I viewed was the Intranet Roadmap web site at http://www.intranetroadmap.com/. The site is essentially an intranet guide, portal and tutorial all in one for those who are designing a corporate intranet or for those who wish to perfect or upgrade an already established intranet. The site offers such content as intranet articles, intranet links and new intranet features.
This site is a great example of how imperative it is to form a connection between business strategy and technology.
The forth site I looked at was Information Architech located at http://www.informationarchitech.com/. It is a Louisiana based web design company that focuses on the area of “findability.” The site concentrates on a type of marketing called “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO). Their goal is to help clients make certain that their company’s website shows up high in the rankings and is easily located when a searcher uses any words that are related to the business in such search engines as Google or MSN. I found that this site really illustrates what kind of work designers are up to and how they are displaying their abilities. Additionally, the site is straightforward and the navigation was not at all difficult.
The fifth and last site I reviewed was Adaptive Path located at http://www.adaptivepath.com/. The purpose of this site is to help clients design their sites. They offer such aids as strategy and design consulting, public events and workshops, and in-house training. This group has designed consumer experiences for clients who produce mobile products, software applications, hardware devices, websites, and interactive media. One of the things I liked best about this organization was that they make a real effort to learn about their clients through such methods as field research, remote user testing, ethnographic studies, usability testing and global user research. This kind of attention towards clients is very appealing, as businesses want that kind of dedication when it comes to how they are presenting their services.