March 1, 2005 (Vol. 25, No. 5)
URL:
http://www.entomology.wisc.edu/irc/ircpage.html
Rating:
Strong Points: Simple Navigation
Weak Points: Nothing Significant
Summary:
Here’s another departmental effort that is a break from the usual listings of faculty names, research projects, and other boring material. Instead, the Department of Botany site at the University of Wisconsin provides interesting metaphors for finding information about plants. The opening page is organized in a table format of plants (and other botany-related topics of interest). Items in the table include images, hypertext, and folder icons (indicating extensive information inside). The images are super, and the “other information” includes interesting topics ranging from meiosis/mitosis to photosynthesis, growth substances, and microscopy. Though the table cells are a rather inefficient use of screen space, I really liked the way they enabled easy navigation. A very interesting departmental site.