Design Exploration - Flash 2

The following is a clean, clever example of an interactive timeline.

To celebrate basketball star Michael Jordan's induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in September, Jordan Brand (a sub-brand of Nike) launched a mini-site, www.nike.com/jumpman23/historyofflight/.

While the site is styled with sophisticated graphics that resemble pop-up cards, it's clear that the site's focus is on 24 years of Jordan game shoes. Therefore, the Jordan branding experience continues, but in a fun, experiential-based way.

First, a truly linear timeline makes it easy for the user to explore the site. After clicking on any year (from 1985-present), a beautiful collage springs to life, again with a Jordan shoe as the centerpiece. Click on any of the graphics and the user is treated to complementary details, each shoe's design information as well as events that happened during the year. Regarding the shoes, we learn in 1985, that the red-and-black Air Jordan 1 was banned by the NBA. However, Nike happily "paid the fine for the exposure generated by Jordan" in his amazing rookie year. Jumping to 2002, we learn, after clicking on a saxophonist, that "the AJXVII was inspired by jazz. The shoe had jazz notes molded into them."

Regarding the design, again, we have an environmental, exploratory timeline that employs pop-up captions, Lightbox features and opportunities to relive Jordan's greatest moments through video. It is no accident that the pop-to-life imagery is a metaphor for the jumping skills of Michael Jordan. Also, interestingly, though fans are used to seeing Jordan's shoes in color, these are featured in a tonal light gray, with emphasis on bright graphics. Lastly, the white background and spare number of links border display a minimalist look and guide the user to the middle.