I chose to look at the Virtual Tourisms project from the Vectors Journal. The project offers a look into the world of tourism in Los Angeles via a specific hotel in the 1880s and 1890s, focusing on “the urban planning context and socio-spatial relationships” of the specific time and place. With the goal of “reinforcing preconceived notions of the city, while at the same time allowing for unexpected ruptures, the project takes the form of a 19th century scrapbook or travel journal.
To begin exploring the project, you get to choose between four historical characters, and they represent different classes, genders, and ethnicities. I like how you get to browse descriptions of each character before making a decision on whose journey to follow. Three of the characters worked at the hotel, while one was a visitor.
However, the interface at up to this point already had some problems. On the introduction page, you can mouse over images to change the text on the screen, and it seems like you should be able to click on them to take you to a new page but you can’t. Additionally, the scroll bar for viewing character information looked elaborate to match the theme, but the space in the scroll bar didn’t correspond to the length you had to scroll. I also didn’t like that there was no “back” option on the pages.
The rest of the project has a game-like interface. Your home screen is a series of brochures to look at: Where to stay in Los Angeles, Why visit Los Angeles,What to do in Los Angeles, and The Raymond Hotel. When you click on an entry in the brochure, you can view information about the location or activity and see a picture of it. The image has three magnifying glasses, which the information box says are for viewing the advertising and promotion aspects, the history of the environment, and the socio-spatial point of view. You can collect souvenirs and mark the locations you’ve seen on a map.
Overall, I think the game interface is fun and interactive, but that sacrifices the clarity of the information. The website is pretty confusing to navigate, and I think a slideshow would be much more effective than the magnifying glasses because you can’t see the entire picture and some pictures only have one or two magnifying options. Though the project’s goal was to show the L.A. tourism industry through the eyes of members of different classes, the difference between experiences for the different characters is completely unclear.