Monterey Bay Aquarium

Client: Mike Rigsby

Project Manager: Greg Pool

Interface designer: Greg Pool and Kirsten Carlson

Publisher: Mike Rigsby

Live site: redesigned - www.montereybayaquarium.org

Notes: In the summer of 1996, the Monterey Bay Aquarium needed a website designed in two weeks. When Mike and Kirsten approached the university, through Gordon Freedman, they provided me with a well-developed flowchart and some design element ideas. I acted as a project manager for the development of the interface and later the initial publishing of the site. Prof. John Ittelson provided consulting towards the eventual development of a design document.

My biggest contribution was to adopt a thematic approach to the Aquarium's design, defining each section in terms of three distinct templates for the 100+ pages. From there, Kirsten was able to apply a specific color to her elements for each of the six sections defined by their flowchart.

We defined the templates in one week and my student assistants spent the next week combining Mike's content and Kirsten's graphics into functional pages. The site lasted until Spring 2000 and won numerous awards, including Popular Science's Top 50 Science and Technology Websites.