Sightings: One excellent site each day.

Previous Sightings
June, 2002

Corridos Sin Fronteras
"Corridos Sin Fronteras" is a bilingual web site that teaches the rich history of Mexico through narrative songs known as "corridos." The site supports the Smithsonian Institution's traveling exhibition of the same name, which means "Ballads Without Borders." Visitors learn about revolutionaries, bandits, war heroes, drug smugglers and more through music, art, photography and video. A teacher section helps integrate the site into the classroom, and a resource section provides even more information on this popular musical tradition. (Sighted by Lou Kinard)

Anoto corporate
There's actually a pair of cool sites here. The first is the URL in the link and the second is http://www.anotofunctionality.com. I love the way they have those line drawings that gradually fill up with pictures. That gives me shivers. Also note how if you request the next page of text, the old text flies out and shuffles under as if it's a stack of notecards. On the second site, take the technology demo and be sure to turn on the animation. Just some really great effects here. (Sighted by Lori Piquet)

Space.com
If you like planets, and rockets, and stuff like that, this is a good place to get your fix. There's a ton of stuff here, designed well, and updated often. Includes games, multimedia, message boards, and an online store. (Sighted by Ladd Angelius)

Modern Living
This site is just a deep collection of somewhat odd, short animations in Flash. Sometimes they have a deeper meaning and sometimes they're just silly, but they're all very well designed and executed. (Sighted by Ladd Angelius)

DFilm
This is really fun. There's a Web-based movie making applicaiton on this site that walks you through a very simple wizard. When you've completed all of about 6 steps, you have a complete, semi-customized high resolution multimedia animation that you can send to your friends automatically. (Sighted by Edna Chavira)

Dr. Ergo
Ok, this site's design is nice, but might not normally be worthy of becoming a Sighting, but it does provide useful information for computer users--particularly regarding Computer Vision Syndrome. Check it out for some tips on maintaining your health while you work. (Sighted by Carrie Sherrill)

Going Clear
Okay, so you've seen just about every Flash intro on the Web. What else could you possibly learn from another one? How about a great example of branding: a ubiquitous logo that shows up everywhere but somehow doesn't overpower the overall design of the site. Take a look. (Sighted by Glen Kunene)

Beyond Vegetarianism
This site does a really good job with something that few home-grown sites do well: content. Notice how informative the headlines and "sell copy" (the little blurbs underneath the article titles) are? This site is thought-provoking, well edited, well researched, and doesn't shove the content down your throat. Let's you pick what you like. Nice white space, too. (Sighted by Lori Piquet)

Snopes
This is one of those sites that documents urban legends. But this one is really excellent! Ok the music is cheezy (you can turn it off) but the quality and veracity of the information is excellent. Some of the records have incredible detail, complete with supporting links and multimedia! Plus there's great browsing features such as the Randomizer and new additions. (Sighted by Trisha Merriam)

Mid-Tokyo Maps
Mid-Tokyo Maps is a site is dedicated to (guess what?) maps of Tokyo! Sounds boring, but there's a lot more to it. Using the maps as its main organizing principle, the site explores the city's geographical, cultural, and architectural history, while comparing these things with other major metropolitan cities. The site has a lot of content, so it's not surprising that navigation isn't necessarily the most intuitive when you begin. But once you figure it out, it starts to flow pretty well, and it's so interesting, it's hard to leave. (Sighted by Erin Gannon)

Jon Tom
This site for an independent Italian musician has a pleasing balance of information and images. I like the top nav bar--always easy to find and use. (Sighted by Fred Merrill)

WatchIT
This site is a nearly-pure video site that collects and publishes interviews and training information playable in either Windows Media Player or Real Media formats. The site charges to view the full videos, but you can view previews or look at the schedule to get a good idea of the available content. If you like getting information through videos, you'll like this site. (sighted by Russell Jones)

Bioinformatics .Org
This Web site is devoted to disseminating information about one of the newest areas in technology--a merger of biology/genetics and information processing. The site offers links to articles, other organizations, free code, and a wealth of other resources. Start here to find out what's new in bioinformatics and why the field is so hot right now. (sighted by Russell Jones)

The Internet Piano Page
Sometimes it's useful to look at a site from the point of view of how not to design pages. Everything about this site, starting at the top of the page and working down, is poorly designed. From the "New!" icons on the title (and everywhere else), to the awkwardly centered text, the absence of any obvious links or meaningful content near the top of the page, to the enormous font used when you finally scroll to the bottom of the page in an effort to find the content--all are horrible. Avoid every design feature you find on this page like the plague. Fortunately, the music is good--when you find working links. (Sighted by Russell Jones)

Asciimation
Have you ever seen a full length movie in ASCII? For a little low-tech fun, you should check out this site. It's not particularly new, but still refreshingly simple. (Sighted by Anton Tandiono)

Backpacker.com Mountaineering Guide
The new Mountaineering section of the Backpacker.Com site is a very cool demonstration of how Macromedia Flash Player 6 can be used to improve site performance. Flash Player enables the reader to navigate through lots of information without completely redrawing the page each time. Flash is also used on this site to integrate archived articles and product reviews into the new format. Overall it creates a very nice user experience. (Sighted by Peter Horan)

Ant's Roots
This is the portfolio domain of a Flash developer named Antonio Luis. I picked it for the Experiments section and the Messages section. The UI in the Messages section was sort of intriguing. It wouldn't work all that well if you had a volume of posts and it wouldn't work at ALL for threaded discussion, but it's great the way it's implemented--for just dropping short feedback notes. The Experiments section will give you new respect for user controls in Flash. (Sighted by Lori Piquet)

MSNBC
The cascading menu structure on MSNBC demonstrates an interesting way to present lots of information quickly. The only downside? Too much of a good thing. There are sections, such as "Business," where the menu goes four layers deep. Your screen is suddenly overrun with menus. (Sighted by Peter Horan)

Eco-Challenge
Earth colors reflect mood of site's content; colors change but watermark/general design doesn't when you move from one geographic area to another. Clean effect, but lots of info tucked in there. Information design not the greatest, but otherwise a visually and sensorily pleasant site. (Sighted by Morgan Hunt)

BlakeRadio.com
This site has a has a smooth feel to it, as well as a nice navigation to different channels. Flash and HTML versions help keep access open to event the broadband-impaired. (Sighted by John Dobson)