Health-related Web sites permeate
the Internet. They range from the fly-by-night, weight loss sites to the
National Library of Medicine’s site, which is an amalgamation of all
medical information tracked or associated with the federal government.
Despite the plethora of
health-related sites, finding one that gives visitors a basic, unbiased and
solid understanding of how the major systems and organs in the body work can be
difficult. Two sites that come close are NLM site and health.discovery.com. While these may provide some help,
it comes only after extensive sifting through unrelated information, and even
then may or may not provide helpful information.
The Web site that comes closer to
the ideal than does NLM and Discovery is the National Geographic’s “Health and
the Human Body” Web package. Although the individual parts of the package
aren’t perfect when considered alone, in aggregate, they provide a solid
overview of what some of the body’s major organs and organ systems are and how
they work.
Content
The package’s content is broken down
into five sections, with each section representing a focus on a different part
of the body. The section categories are the brain, the digestive system, the
lungs, the skin and the heart.
In general, it’s clear that the written
and graphic content within each section is aimed at an audience who know perhaps
a little something about how the body works, but certainly aren’t experts. And
with this target audience in mind, what can be learned from the site is extensive.
The articles that accompany each
section, for example, provide an overview of the parts that make up each organ
or set of organs and how those parts work together. Any of these articles could
be just a couple of lines long and provide only the most basic information, or
the articles can go on for pages, providing explanations in excruciating
detail. The “Health and the Human Body” articles, however, strike a good
balance in providing just enough detail to complete the explanation, but not so
much detail as to clutter the casual reader’s understanding.
An example of this balance is the
“Lung” section article. How the lungs function could have
been presented with a simple, two- or three-sentence statement along the lines
of that these are the organs responsible for our breathing. It could have also
been an exhaustive article, involving fluid dynamic and gas infusion equations.
Instead, it provides a straightforward overview of each of the lungs’ structures
and how those parts work together to allow us to breathe.
Reflecting the clarity of the
articles are the interactive graphics. Each section includes comprehensive
animations of how organs work without skimping on details, but also without
being needlessly gory or dramatic. In addition, each section includes two extra
links to interesting, and even fun, animations. The graphics associated with
the “Skin” article, for example, includes a link to “Stresses
on Skin,” where visitors can experiment with three different ways skin can be
damaged and watch in detail how skin repairs itself. By clicking “Stimulate the
Brain” in the “Brain” section, visitors can watch an animation of
what parts of the brain are active due to different stimuli (make sure you
speakers are on). These and the other graphics serve to give visitors an
opportunity not only to read about how the body works, but also to see it in
action.
My only reservation about the
content is the lack of links for additional information outside the National
Geographic Web site. What links there are go to articles written by either
nationalgeographic.com staff or the organization’s magazine writers. One of the
advantages the Web has over other tools is the ability to give readers access
to deeper content through links to that information. The “Health and the Human
Body” site doesn’t take advantage of this ability.
Interface
Although
how the content is presented and how the navigation is structured on the site
isn’t extraordinary, it is good. The main graphic navigation on the package’s opening
page, for example, is fairly intuitive. It’s an outline of a human being with
the five organs and systems highlighted. Clicking on one of the organ
representations takes a visitor to the specific page associated with the organ.
The navigation is repeated below the Flash graphic, but with only straight
text, photos and links to provide visitors with perhaps a more conventional
navigation system, especially for visitors who may not know which organs are
located where in the body.
The package’s
navigation falls apart, however, on the organ-specific pages. The conventional
navigation found below the main graphic on the front page is replaced with each
section’s article. And the main Flash navigation is replaced by each section’s
animations and subnavigation menus. The only way back, then to the main page
and any other page is by hitting one button, labeled “The Human Body.” It would
have been nice to have the full navigation remain in some form so that no
matter where a visitor is within the presentation, he or she can always get to
another section easily.
That said,
the content layout is quite nice and, in some cases, happily unexpected. In
particular, the site only displays the first few lines of each of the articles
below the main graphic. Most site designers would have opted for using a scroll
bar to allow readers access to the full text. Most site visitors know that
reading articles in a small space controlled by scroll bars can be annoying. The
designers for this site got around this annoyance by including an “Expand for
more” button just below the beginning of the article. Clicking this button
pushes all of the content below the article further down, exposing the
article’s full text, which is easier to read than in a small box controlled by
a scroll bar.
Interactivity
The site
isn’t full of the type of interactive elements for a visitor to interact with other
visitors through blogs, comments and other vehicles. Indeed, there are no
opportunities for this is. But that’s okay. If the purpose of the site is to
provide a basic, solid understanding of some of the body’s functions, then such
interactive opportunities aren’t need, especially if other sites can fill the
niche. The “Heart” section does make some use of an online quiz and some
printable items, which, if included in the other four sections, would have been
helpful in increasing readers’ understanding of the issues.
Where the
site’s interactivity shines, however, is in its animations. The site’s
developers could have simply provided “play,” “stop” and “pause” buttons to
control the progression of a predetermined, Flash movie clip. Instead, the
developers created a site the can give visitors a deep understanding of the
body’s processes.
For
example, visitors who go to the “Digestive
System” page and click on “Feed the System” have the opportunity to select foods
to see how they are digested (in an easy-to-take animation) and how the body
uses those foods. Visitors who go to the “Heart” section and click “Pumping
Action” can control and see (and hear) the effects of progressively more strenuous
physical exertion on the heart. They can also then take a tour of the heart and
how it functions.
Conclusion
The
National Geographic’s “Health and the Human Body” online package isn’t perfect.
In particular, the navigation format could be a little better thought out, and
outside resource links and additional quizzes could have provided for more educational
opportunities and a deeper understanding of how the body works. In all,
thought, the National Geographic’s “Health and the Human Body” site gives a
basic, solid understanding of what some of the parts of the bodies organs and
how those organs work together to keep us alive.
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