ejnord.com | Area 17

When it comes to interactive design, Area 17 is like the Rosetta Stone or the Magna Carta.

To some, the A17 site might come off as just another sterile, bourgeois interface. But this information architecture is breathtaking. It is an embodiment and a microcosm of all the core principles and practices of interactive design.

A17 has done the most with the least. The magic of their site is certainly not its originality or specific innovations. The magic is in bringing it all together in a single site, and in establishing a harmonious relationship between potential content and an existing website structure. This site is a web publishers dream!

In designing its site, A17 architected a grid layout that adapts to fit any and all content. Yet the layout is TIGHT. A left-hand gutter alternates between being a place for notes/messaging or housing a navigational menu. The grey headline area moonlights as an image holder. The target areas vary between layouts of two, three, and four columns — effortlessly. Content can be stacked side-by-side, or top-to-bottom.

When analyzing the site from the owner/publisher perspective, it seems like there would always be a place to put that extra something — an image or a quote — and yet the site never feels empty. In short, the possibililities are endless! What freedom! The A17 site is like a Rubix cube with nothing but perfect combinations.

The secret here is the grid work. In architecting this grid, A17 considered the site as a whole. What works for the innermost individual pages, also works for the main page… and every page in between.