October 15, 2005 (Vol. 25, No. 18)

URL:
http://genewindow.nci.nih.gov/

Rating:
Strong Points: Excellent organization of information
Weak Points: Needs better layout, design

Summary:
Hmmmm. Here is an oddity for a government-developed site. The opening page proclaims Genewindow as “the primary tool for pre-and post-genetic bioinformatics and analytical work at the Core Genotyping Facility (CGF) at the National Cancer Institute.” Good enough. Then, a couple of hallmarks of poor design— #1: onsite advice proclaiming “be sure allow pop-ups and not block them from this site” (Acch—Danger Will Robinson!); and #2: a QuickTime demo showing Genewindow “in action”. This little yawner is a several minute long video of someone scrolling through a Genewindow window. I was almost ready to bypass this seeming turkey, when I did a little playing around and discovered a powerful organization of information underlying the sequences and gene maps. Once I got used to it, it provided one of the tidier compilations of sequences and annotations I have seen. First impressions aren’t always correct.

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