Look & Feel Help

This site look the way it does for several reasons Rather than try and invent yet another look & feel. We felt it prudent to follow the NPS standards set by the NPS web community for overall design. We looked to our Harper's Ferry Center (HFC) for cartographic content and display standards. And we listened to ESRI's advice and guidance on the finer points and conventions for cartographic display and content.

Accessability is a priority issue with the NPS. A majority of the content on every page is as accessable as the current technology will allow. There are two major issues 1) the use of HTML FRAMES and 2) the structure of the interactive map. FRAMES were chosen at the protoype phase for ease of programming. In the near future there are plans to eliminate the dependency on HTML FRAME technology. Currently there is no work around for the interactive maps. We will address this iussue as the technology evolves.

The projection used is Latitude Longitude in decmil degree using the North American Datum from 1983 (NAD83). Which is technically not a projection What this does is appears to distort (or horizontally stretch) features a you get farther from the euqator. In a future version we wil most likely move to an Albers projection so that the stretched effect will be minimized.

In theis version of the IMC we have not addressed the ability to customize the size of the map. In future versions we plan to offer the ability to have small, meduim, and large map output options. So, you can choose the size of map based on the spped of your local connection to the internet, or the ammount of time you are willing to wait for a map to display.

more to come.