* Good Web sites from the government
We tend to think of the government as inept and wasteful when it comes to the issue of computer technology – we’ve all heard the tales of multimillion-dollar IT projects going nowhere. Today, I have some examples of government departmental Web sites that show you can get a huge bang for a modest buck.
These sites are founded on a common problem: How to show complex information to Web users who have a wide range of skills and understanding of the subject matter.
The first site is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) Graphical Forecast for the 48 Contiguous United States (CONUS) area. If you click on the Graphical Forecast tab and then on your area of the map, you can drill down to county level.
What is really effective about this presentation is the layout. The left hand frame provides both fine-grained temporal and specific data set navigation while above are tabs providing access to gross temporal navigation (daily and weekly views) as well as loops of radar images. Above that band of tabs are more tabs for other data sets.
What impresses me is that using Java applets or Flash content would have been an easy decision but the NWS staff has achieved a sophisticated and complex presentation with only fairly straightforward DHTML coding.
The other site that deserves a look is the GEOMAC (Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination) Wildland Fire Support site. The goal of the site was to create an “Internet-based mapping tool … designed for fire managers to access online maps of current fire locations and perimeters in the conterminous 48 states and Alaska.”
This site relies on ArcIMS from ESRI. ArcIMS is a server-based framework for distributing GIS services and data over the Web and the GEOMAC site only requires browsers to support frames and JavaScript. What is delivered is a comprehensive Geographical Information System (GIS) for tracking wildfires (a topic of considerable interest if you are a California resident).
Again, as with the NWS CONUS Graphical Forecast, GEOMAC’s ability to drill down into a complex data set is impressive and is easily grasped by users at all skill levels.
So before you decide that you need Java applets, Flash content, or even exotic plug-ins to render your presentation consider what can be done when your goal is a minimal browser environment and your target audience is very broad in their computer skills. If the government can do it, why can’t you?
