Each month RECORD reviews building product related web sites and blogs that might be of interest to our readership. We visit each site, kick the tires a bit, and share what it is about and how it functions. Please let us know if there is a site you've found particularly useful, well-designed, or easy to navigate. — Rita Catinella Orrell
 

www.nondesigns.com
Nondesigns’s site has launched an online store for its table, lamp, and other product designs [RECORD, September 2006, page 173], all of which can be customized by the shopper right on the site. Information about the design firm and photo galleries of its work grow out of links like bean sprouts, so the site map looks like a plant when opened. It can be a jungle in there, but the site’s design successfully expresses the firm’s unique aesthetic.
 

www.vinylroofs.org/cool.html
The Chemical Fabrics and Film Association’s Vinyl Roofing Division site now includes an environmental benefits overview. The site’s teal and beige color scheme may not attest to vinyl’s tastefulness, but clearly organized information about tax deductions, government rebates and incentives, building energy codes, product rating systems, voluntary green building programs, and tools such as energy calculators, make this an exceptionally informative site.
 

www.mocoloco.com
Mocoloco is a modern contemporary design and architecture Web magazine featuring over 30 categories of designs, buildings, and products with editorial analysis. The Web site focuses on design in its well-edited content, but not in its layout, which reads like a blog. Each month, entries are discussed and illustrated in a vertical layout on a single page without a table of contents. Visitors post comments on individual designs.
     

www.noodfashion.com
Nood Floorcovering has developed the Nood Lab, accessible through the pattern library on its Web site. Nood Lab allows designers to search for patterns, pan and zoom to survey each pattern, save designs in a password-protected portfolio, and visualize them in 216 colors in a virtual room scene. Floating text blocks can leave you feeling dizzy, but the Web site’s colorful urban organic design is easy to navigate.