2008 BEST OF WEB: JUDGES' SELECTION | CHERYL TOWLER WEESE
Believe it or not, that paradigm applies to searchable, online record collections. Most of these are designed for people who know precisely which historic details they need. The sites are useful, but—yawn. So Seattle-based Second Story did it differently for The National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C., the largest repository of government historic documents in the U.S. “We created a dynamic experience for people who don’t have a predetermined goal,” says Brad Johnson, creative director and partner at Second Story. “A lot of collections are designed for researchers who are looking for something specific. But this is a more general audience, and we wanted to facilitate a sense of open-ended discovery.”

From the archive’s 10 billion “records,” or historic photos and documents, the Digital Vaults site features 1200. Each is tagged with multiple values. A photo of Richard Nixon, for instance, is tagged with the words President and White House, among others. Users who click on a Nixon image (like the most-requested photo in the archive, in which he’s shaking Elvis’ hand) will call up a series of related images and documents pertaining to presidents in general and Nixon in particular.

These related records swirl around the center image (Second Story calls it a “spiral navigation system”), moving dynamically before settling down to await user interaction. Click on one of those related records—like a dapper Bill Clinton at around age 4, sporting a pompadour and topcoat—and you’ll be swept in the direction of Number 42’s life and presidency. (Users can also click on one of several tags in a list—like Presidents, Famous People, Elvis Presley, White House—following different lines of inquiry.)

STEP Best of Web judge Cheryl Towler Weese, partner and creative director at Chicago’s Studio Blue, spent a great deal of time with the site, which she applauds for its rich, immersive storytelling. But she concedes it’s not the most beautiful site ever designed. For grace and animated beauty, she points to another entry, Rapp Collins’ site (http://www.rappcollins.com). Several other entries impressed her with similarly engaging content, including another Second Story site for the Alaska Native Collections from the Smithsonian Institution (www.alaska.si.edu), and Brain­storm’s work for The Lumina Foundation (www.luminafoundation.org), whose mission is to reduce or eliminate the educa­tional attainment gap among Latinos.

But the National Archives site rose to the top in her estimation, in part because of the powerful storytelling. Specifically, Weese appreciates the fact that many of these stories feature ordinary people who have done extraordinary things in history. “It moved me,” says Weese. “And when I think about it, there’s really nothing more laudable than that.”

She also praises Second Story for this site’s inventive navigation solution. Having recently served as a judge in several design shows, Weese has been discouraged by the general lack of exuberance in both web and print design. “It’s as if we’re living in an age of sobriety,” she says. But she points to one bright—and significant—spot: While much of the work she’s seen suggests designers are making safe aesthetic choices, it’s clear to Weese that they’re finding—and exploiting—opportunities to innovate in navigation systems. “The real creativity is coming through in information design,” she says, “and that requires designers to think like engineers, editors, curators and authors. It requires them to wear many hats. The Second Story site has done that well.”

Weese also gives credit to the firm for successfully tackling the formidable aesthetic limitations that come with archival material: Many of these records are visually uninteresting document scans. Second Story designer Christian Bannister explains: “When you’re working with photographs and documents from so many different periods in history, the assets aren’t going to be visually consistent,” he says. “There are ways to create consistency—you can work with colors and typography, for instance—but really it was a mixed bag of just about everything. So we knew that the container holding the infor­mation had to be neutral. At the same time, it had to be engaging.”

Weese recalls one record in particular that illustrates Second Story’s success in adding visual kick to an inherited set of assets. It’s a dramatic, eyewitness account of a Vietnam War staff sergeant who died while saving his soldiers’ lives. The story teems with heart-wrenching detail, but it’s presented as nothing more than a typed statement users scroll to read. “I love the fact that Second Story invented all these ways to create interest with this form of interactivity,” says Weese. There’s the swirling navigation system, which surrounds the document with photographs or other records to create a compelling composition. Even the titling, adds Weese, becomes a storytelling tool. “They could have called this record ‘Eyewitness Statement from the Vietnam War.’ Instead, they called it ‘And Everybody Froze,’ which is a line taken from the statement itself, and it’s entirely more interesting.”

With the rest of the industry, Weese has been thinking a great deal about the future of design—contemplating the goals and purposes design ought to adopt if it’s to stay relevant. “In the end,” she says, “what really got me excited about this site was that its aims were ambitious. It makes complex content engaging to a very broad audience, without dumbing it down. And that’s the difference between skinning the content and shaping the way information is understood and received. If design is going to have a role in the future, it should do all of those things. It should aim high.” Tiffany Meyers

SECOND STORY | CREATIVE DIRECTOR: BRAD JOHNSON | STUDIO DIRECTOR: JULIE BEELER | PRODUCER: JENNIFER YOUNG | DESIGNERS: CHRISTIAN BANNISTER, DAVE RAU | PROGRAMMERS: MICHAEL GODFREY, JEREMY BROWN, THOMAS WESTER | PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: ERICA DILLON, MELISSA PAUGH | QUALITY ASSURANCE: MELISSA PAUGH, ERICA DILLON | CLIENT: THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.SECONDSTORY.COM