Hello! In this post I will be exploring two Stanford spatial history projects and comparing their presentation and layout. The two projects I have chosen are “Reconstructing California Conservation History” and “Richard Pryor’s Peoria.”
Beginning with both projects on the Stanford University website there is basic information, a gallery of resources, and information about the teams that worked on each project. The Richard Pryor project only has one item in the gallery making it simple for those wanting to access the site to find it. The California Conservation project has five items in the gallery, this is helpful as there are more resources on the topic.
Users are able to explore the gallery items for the Reconstructing California Conservation History project, there are five total items in the gallery. Two of these items are articles, providing information on the projects complete with maps, images, and interactive applications to best explain the project. Within the article, all the interactive applications are still functional but many of the images no longer appear. The three other items in the gallery are no longer functional. This is a limiting factor for the designers as the work they put into their application cannot be fully utilized due to out-of-date applications.
The designers for the California Conservation project chose to display their data by using written information similar to a traditional academic journal article and through interactive applications. While both can be effective most of the interactive aspects of the project are unusable with the only part of them that still provides information is the abstract and some extra information which is not as effective as a useable application with all data available. The articles that are provided offer detailed information and are longer lasting than the other videos and applications provided. While the videos and applications that are no longer working, they have some information within the description there is no way to fully access the material.
The message that the California Conservation team wants to tell is one that explains the conservation efforts throughout California and tracks the effects they had. This information can be valuable to those living in California and have a personal connection to the land and an interest in preserving the environment. This information also benefits future conservationists who can access this information. Those who access this information don’t need to have extensive background knowledge on the subject, but some basic knowledge would help in better understanding the information. People may be interested in gathering more updated data and explore the conservation efforts of other parts of California or other states.
Richard Pryor’s Peoria project is different in the material a user can access. This project focuses on the life and career of Richard Pryor as well as his connections to Peoria, Illinois. The only item in the gallery on the Stanford website is a link to a website that serves as a digital companion to the biography Becoming Richard Pryor by Scott Saul. This website is fully functional and has all of the data available on the website.
This website is very user-friendly with tabs at the top making navigating through many topics easy. Users can sort through material by people, places, eras, and themes. The designers of the site chose to make sure that all the information on the website would be long-lasting. This is likely because it works in tandem with the book, and this allows readers to access this information. The developers organized the data in a variety of ways, through large essays teaching the history of Pryor’s life, a timeline, and access to many primary sources such as newspaper articles and legal documents. This website would attract people interested in Richard Pryor or Peoria history and readers of Becoming Richard Pryor would be interested in accessing this website.
Limitations of this application are that there is an overwhelming amount of information which can make finding details difficult. Information on the site is organized in long paragraphs making users need to sort through large amounts of information. Another limitation is that finding the website can be difficult if a user does not start on the Stanford website or if someone has already read the book associated with it and knows what to search for to find the website. When entering a simple google search for “Richard Pryor” this website does not appear in the results, making it harder for users to find the site and access it. This website would inspire more people to take an interest in Richard Pryor’s life and Peoria history.
Overall, the Stanford spatial history project is a useful resource. However, because the site is no longer being updated it is hard to use all aspects of the projects. If this site were updated, it would be much more valuable. As the site exists now, the ways that the data is presented are effective within the sources that are functional but outside of that the data is useless.
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