The Exploration of The Web: Finding Quality Sites

This week in the blogosphere I decided to not just bring up issues relating to real estate development, but rather bring quality real estate development sites to my viewers attention. It is difficult to narrow down to ten enlightening websites, but by using Webby awards and IMSA criteria, I truly believe these are sites that must be looked at in this field. Although this was initially intended to be for my viewers, it also made me aware of very professional websites. The ten websites that I will be addressing in this blog are situated in the linkroll to the left. I hope that you find my interpretations of the websites useful and that it will stimulate enough interest to want to go view the sites.

To begin the evaluations let's start with the American Planning Association. This is a very educational site on planning issues that are happening throughout the United States with regard to development (to the right is a picture of potential green urban development). The structure of the site is laid out nicely and has great functionality between links. This is a site I would recommend that people take a look at but it could use some improvement in the area of interactiveness, which it is currently lacking. Next the BOMA is a great site that takes a look at development on a local level as well as the international level. It is extremely informative on issues of sustainability and how to approach new developments. Once again this site lacks in interactive ability, but makes up for it with its context and well designed structure. I would say that this is a good site to look to for information, but not one of my favorites out of the ten. Third is a site called Cyburbia which is not very visually pleasing but does have a nice structure and is easily navigable. The information is interesting but somewhat on a smaller level of urban planning. It lacks all interactiveness which would make it much more interesting to visit. Once again I would put it on a level of an interesting site but not quite as good as some of the others in the linkroll. Moving on to the FIABCI, this site is a tremendous site to look at real estate development on an international level. It has great visual appearance and decent interactiveness. The information is interesting and easy to navigate through. I would say that it meets all of the criteria very well and I would rate it towards the top of the list for sites to use. Equally interesting is LUPIN, a California land use government website. Given that we're in California the site gives all the information you need to know on zoning and laws for development. It has great structure and is extremely easy to navigate through while using the links. Although, it does not have any real interactiveness and lacks visual appearance, but I would recommend this site for anyone who would like to stay updated with California planning and development laws and guidelines. Next is my favorite site of all the development website Planetizen. This is an extremely enriching and educational site on all issues of planning and development happening around the world. It is one of the most updated sites and has great structure, which makes it easy to scroll through. It does lack visual appearance and interactiveness which I have found most of these sites do. I highly recommend this site and it is my favorite. The next site I would like to talk about is Project for Public Places. This site is more visually pleasing than others and is broken up nicely so it is easy to navigate though. Structure wise it is great and talks about cases all over the United States. Like the other sites it does lack in interactiveness but has very interesting case studies. This is definitely a must visit site. Another interesting urban design site is Resource for Urban Design Information. This is a great site for looking at urban design of areas and building on an international level. It has sufficient structure and is easy to navigate through. The information is very relevant, but lacks the visual and interactive aspects. I think it is an interesting site, but could use some improvements to make it more visually appealing. I would place it toward the middle or bottom of the ten linkroll. Next is a site called Urban Future and it is one of my favorites in the aspect of information. It has a good break down of information by state and issues. The structure is perfect and makes it very easy to navigate through. I would definitely recommend the site but once again as with many of the other development sites, it lacks the visual appeal and interactiveness. Last is the Urban Land Institute. They did a decent job of trying to make it visually appealing but like the others it lacks the interactiveness. It has great structure which makes it easy to navigate through. The information is on a local level as well as international aspect, which makes their issues and stories very interesting. Overall it is a great site and I would rank it towards the top ten of the linkroll.