Clio Wired (History 696)

I'm not sure there can really be any doubt that the Deerfield site consistently bests the other sites we looked at for all of the following categories:

• Which of these sites most effectively conveys the past to a "general" audience? (And why?)
  
• Which of these sites makes the most effective use of new media? (And how?)
  
• Which of these sites has a design and interface that most effectively communicates its message and serves its audience?

For this entry, though, I'll evaluate Deerfield with respect to the design and interface of the site.

The site makes excellent use of Flash, without overwhelming the user. I worry about the viewer with a lower-end system, though, but then again I'm of a fairly Darwinian mind when it comes to keeping your computer up to date - keep up or get out of the way. Another concern I'd point out is the possibility of information overload - the site borders on exhaustive, which is useful for someone like me with a bare familiarity with early colonial America, but then again I (like all of us) have a keen interest in history. Perhaps the casual web surfer who thinks they like history after reading a few David McCollough books may be drinking from the firehose, so to speak. But that said, those are the only two objections I have with the site.

The main message of the Deerfield site is that the raid on the settlement cannot be viewed as an isolated experience, a one-night struggle of the English (proto-Americans) versus the enemy. The site contextualizes the raid with information about North American and European society in the century before the raid and the affects of the raid on the decades that followed. Central to this narrative are the "Five Stories," of the English, the French, the Mohawk, the Huron, and the Wobanaki. As Meghan pointed out, every event discussed on the site can be viewed through the filter of each of these five cultures, simply by clicking on a different tab. It is this ease of utility that can encourage a user to explore the different strands of experience that weave together the overarching narrative of the raid on Deerfield.

There is more to the site than clicking between hyperlinked fields of text, of course. Audio clips and Flash animations provide an immersive (if passive) experience to the viewer if those are preferred, as "Less Clicking, More Watching" indicates is the preference for the majority of users. In fact, user-friendliness is kind of the hallmark of the site. For whatever learning style a user may prefer - visual, audio, textual, etc. - the site has ample information to communicate via that delivery method.