The Shockwave Project Continues: An Overview of internet.com

This week we look at the internet.com site and the model list for our current project.

At this point we are nearing the completion of the first graphics and the initial Shockwave movies that will make up the completed project. Up to this point we have discussed the basic overview of the project, project planning, and other related items. Now let's look at the basic structure of the internet.com Web site, and how our project is going to navigate through this structure.

The Basic Structure of the internet.com Web site

Each section of internet.com's site will be accessed through our Shockwave project. In essence, our Shockwave version will serve as the front page to the internet.com site; we will include animation as well as a navigational system. The following list is a breakdown of the internet.com site:

Netday News

• News


• Net.wire


• Developer's Forum


• VRML World


• Simply Shocking


• Multimedia Web


• Design Diary


• Java Jolt


• Business.net


• Daily Stock Report


• Lite Byte

Net Resources

• BrowserWatch


• The List


• Internet Shopper


• Locator


• Electronic Commerce Guide


• WebPointer

Newstand

• Internet World


• Web Week


• Web Developer®

Events

Search

• internet.com Search


• News Search


• Infoseek

Corporate

• About internet.com


• Press Releases


• Advertising Information

How We Will Navigate Through the Site

Now let's take a look at the modal list for the project. In our Shockwave movie, double-clicks on the major header will bring you to the next minor header (if it exists; otherwise, the user will remain on the page if it is the bottom of the tree). Because some of these may be longer across than the width of the navigation bar, we will design the Shockwave so that it will include scroll buttons that can be used to scroll across the display (this will make more sense when we release the first graphics next week).

Our Shockwave (at this point) version looks like a disc that flips over and then "emits" two butterfly panels that come together and serve as a linked display of two hierarchical levels. The one-line display on each can be scrolled separately if needed, and the text elements highlight as the mouse rolls over it. The disc, when left closed and still, includes a simple chaser light animation that attracts our users' attention. This will be set to a timer so that if left unattended for 15 seconds the animation resets; otherwise, the graphic display will stay open and remain still.

Until next week when we view the graphics . . .

Past installments of Simply Shocking