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Sites for Sore Eyes
BNH rates Connecticut-based Web sites of intrigue
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Business New Haven
12/9/2002
By: Melissa Nicefaro
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Business New Haven takes a look at a sampling of some great locally grown Web sites. As defined here, "great" ranges in meaning from interesting to informative and flashy to just plain old cool.
Bic
Headquarters: Locally, Milford (globally, France)
Web address: www.bicworld.com
Site design: Web-Worx
Who would have thought razors and pens could be so compelling? Bic's "trademark yellow" home page with its simple typeface is a deceptive introduction to what lies within. The site, best viewed with 800 X 600 screen resolution and the Flash plug-in, is accessible in both French and English. The
English site is divided into three product areas: stationery (pens and writing utensils), lighters and shavers. Under each category is a choice to see "How It Is Made." Where else can you see exactly how each spring works in a Bic lighter? A wave of the mouse pointer over the product - either pen, lighter or shaver - shows each component part and how it fits together. Right down to the springs and the flints in a "Flip My Bic" lighter, you can see exactly what goes on inside.
Yale University
Headquaters: New Haven
Web address: www.yale.edu
Site design: In-house
Yale's home-grown Web site cannot be overlooked as one of the state's most comprehensive sites. Yale.edu is an open book to the university and its inner-workings. Looking for a particular professor? Search the Yale online phone book, a telephone, e-mail and address directory for Yale faculty, staff and students. Wondering about benefits and compensation packages for clerical and technical job positions at the university? It's on Yale's Web site. Looking for the next allergy and clinical immunology seminar? It's there, on the Web site. Need an academic course packet? You can go to Whitney Avenue or Broadway. Or you can stay put and order one online at Yale's Web site. See a pattern? Granted, most of the information on Yale's site directly pertains to the university, but it is very accommodating to those looking for information.
New Haven Free Public Library
Headquarters: New Haven
Web address: www.nhfpl.lib.ct.us
Site design: W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
Since the Internet was conceived with libraries in mind, it should come as little surprise that the New Haven Free Public Library's site makes our list. Just as a library is the physical hub of a bricks-and-mortar community, the New Haven library system's Web site can easily be called the center of the city's virtual community. Aside from the library-related information, anything and everything there is to know about New Haven can be found through linkage. More than 100 links are grouped into 11 categories: Business/Employment, Education, Entertainment/Art, Health, History, Media, Organizations, Politics/Government, Recreation, Travel/Transportation and Guides to New Haven. Browsers can directly link to Bar or Bulldog Bytes. You can find links to a map of New Haven circa 1641, or a map of downtown New Haven, present day.
Fairfield Pool
Headquarters: Fairfield
Web address: www.fairfieldpool.com
Site design: i2i Creative, Prospect
Perhaps the frigid weather had an influence on our decision to include this Web site in our listing. The sound of children playing and splashing in a swimming pool also helps. As a form of advertising, a Web site's function is to sell a product - or at least bring attention to the product. Fairfield Pool does not sell its product over the Internet, but it does offer a comprehensive source of information for those who can't make it to the store to have their questions immediately answered.
Smizer Design
Headquarters: Waterford
Web address: www.smizerdesign.com
Site design: In-house
Let's face it: A jazzy Web site can give the impression a company knows what it's doing. That's not to say Smizer does not know what it's doing, just because it has a professional and non-offensive Web site. It helps to be an advertising or marketing company that is in the business of promoting, like Smizer Design. Doing what it does best, Smizer designed a business Web site that is catchy and classy-looking without being too cutesy. Just don't forget to knock before entering.
Mascola
Headquarters: New Haven
Web address: www.mascola.com
Site design: In-house
Can you say cool with a capital C? Make sure your volume is turned down if you don't want to be humming the Fluffernutter jingle for the rest of the day. If the tune doesn't draw you in, the bright (but not obnoxious) green-and-blue home page should. Aside from a few emblems that pop-up along the way, the site is mainly scrolling test, made to look like it is being typed as you load the page. In the business of print, outdoor, radio, television, and Web advertising, Mascola gets the virtual word out about its own company without crossing the "overdone" line. (Who would want an overdone Fluffernutter anyway?) It's okay; you do have a choice to turn the music off. "You need Fluff, Fluff, Fluff to make a Fluffernutter/Marshmallow Fluff, and lots of peanut butter..."
Sign Story
Headquarters: Tolland
Web address: www.signstory.com
Site design: In-house
This site is silent, but tells a story nevertheless. Sign Story is an interactive point-of-purchase merchandising system that provides information immediately adjacent to a product at a retail establishment such as a liquor store. In the real world, Sign Story uses 42-inch plasma screens. In the virtual world, the company uses flashing, scrolling, twisting and twirling words to get its message across. Sign Story uses the same eye-catching technique for its Web site that it uses to catch attention in stores.
Bar
Headquarters: New Haven
Web address: www.barnightclub.com
Site design: Rich Fencil
Grab a beer, pull up your chair and pretend you're really at Bar, the popular Crown Street watering hole. It's not hard to do when you pull up Bar's Web site, too. Perhaps the establishment in New Haven with the simplest, yet most descriptive name, Bar boasts a Web site that is equally descriptive. You can stop by the Bru Rm., Front Room, Grain Loft, Back Room, Back Porch or the Lounge. Then read all about the history of the place.
You can do everything but order a beer and shoot a round of pool at Bar's Web site.
All it needs is some music. Just not the Fluffernutter jingle.
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