Simple is better

World at War
Great Content–Poor Design

Content. Wilfried Braakhuis manages one of the most comprehensive sites on the web. Few sites can compete with it as a primer for World War II. The site is well-organized and contains a good mix of primary and secondary sources. Unlike many World War II sites, this site covers the European, Japanese, and American experiences of the war. It also provides a wealth of links to other World War II sites (though Braakhuis does need to update many of his links). The structure of the site is straight-forward—based on a timeline of critical events for the war.

Design. Unfortunately, the site suffers from design “clutter” that complicates navigation and slows downloading times. A variety of moving tanks, waving flags, illustrations of weapons systems, and other items clutter the central narrative of the site. Worse, many hyperlinks and other applications are run by JavaScripts that do not work reliably across different browser packages. Also, because the primary links are driven from graphics instead of html text, users with visual handicaps may not be able to use this site. These graphics also prevent search engines from indexing it well. Because the site maintains so many graphics files, users without cable modems may expect to wait close to two minutes to download the basic site. With cable modems, the site still takes almost 15 seconds to load. And, because navigation is driven from graphics, the user must wait for each page to load before navigating to other pages.

France 1940
Great Content—Great Design

Content. This site discusses various aspects of French military forces during World War II. It provides the most authoritative English-language account of French military organization on the web. Content from the site is based on primary sources and authoritative accounts of the French defeat in 1940.

Design. Professor Petrik would kill me if she found out that I chose this site for an example of superb design, but I wish other sites on the web were designed this way. France 1940 was designed in Netscape Composer, AOL Press and Word 97—so it is an "ugly duckling". However, this lack of “artistic vigor” is the underlying strength of the site’s design. The site’s design lends guarantees easy navigation to the relevant information directly from search engines. Further, the designer places multiple cross-links and descriptions within this site so that the user can get very specific details about individual French units within one to two links. Even better, the site prints beautifully and quickly. Few sites on the web makes understanding military formations easier.

Steve on Design. This leads me to another point, "What is the most important element of web design?" For me, good history web design enables the viewers/users to get the information they want as quickly as possible. This means sites should be written for scanning, and information should be completely exportable in its original format for other computer applications. Also, the site should reference its base sources of information. I would rather read 30 "ugly ducklings" in an hour than spend 20 seconds trying to decypher a glitzy Macromedia Flash or JavaScript interface. The best designs link speed of performance with relevant content--everything else is secondary.