I’ve been thinking about an idea that doesn’t seem to be working yet. But gonna throw it out here anyway.

It’s this idea of an information journey. Adding a narrative arc/time dimension to information discovery.

Test Case

My personal trajectory into learning about art and artists, from about 1998–2003. It’s basically a revisionist-history of my on-ramp into an aspect of the topic (conceptual art). Is there something more communicated when one shares their steps along the way? They path that get them to their present interest? Embedded is just a preview, click the “finding art” to try it:

View Finding Art in a larger map

I made the mockup with google’s my maps. Should it be on a map? dunno, could just be a timeline, but having the ability to hang off content in bubbles seems nice.

The sole difference between this and an annotated bibliography, or listmania for that matter, is the time/progression dimension.

If these paths were shared and made public, the intersections between them could be neat.

Thoughts/feedback (all thoughts from anybody are welcome : )?