Prototype · All 10 ideas integrated
Every page is a node,
not a destination.
Four test pages — Palmer, Baker Electric, the REA era, the locomotive — connected by a shared graph. Each demonstrates a different angle on the same archive, with 10 non-linear navigation patterns integrated throughout.
Picks an unvisited page, weighted by what you haven't seen
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Cluster graph — 4 test pages · 5 satellite nodes · 13 edges · click any node to navigate
Current
Person
Organization
Era
Object
Place
Drag · hover · click
Browse by axis
The same archive nodes, organized four different ways. Every node is reachable as Person, Place, Era, Object, or Organization — not just through a single canonical path.
Faceted browse
Combine tags across multiple axes. [electrification + benson-county] shows every node related to both. Green borders = test pages you can open.
Test pages
Each demonstrates a different node type. Explore the sidebar constellation, inline xref chips with contextual threads, geography minimap, parallel timeline, and URL-shareable story filters.
Person · Generation 1 American
Palmer Stadum
Demonstrates: theme filter with shareable URL, parallel timeline with Signe, inline xref threads, geography minimap, full backlinks.
→ Baker Electric
→ REA Era
→ Locomotive
→ Signe
Organization · Rural Co-op
Baker Electric
Org-type entry point. A cooperative, not a person — shows how institutions connect Palmer, REA, and Rugby geography.
← Palmer
→ REA Era
→ Rugby
Era · 1937–1975
REA Era
Era-type node with time span on locator. Federal program as entry point — surfaces Palmer, Baker, Pioneer Village without starting from a person.
← Palmer
← Baker
→ Pioneer Village
Object · Hand-built model
Scott Locomotive
Object-first entry: start with a physical thing and discover the person, era, and place through it.
← Palmer
→ Pioneer Village
← Beverly
All 10 non-linear navigation ideas
1. Constellation graphForce-directed D3 graph on every page. Current node highlighted with dashed ring. Drag, hover, click to navigate.
2. Multi-axis indexSame archive nodes browsable by Person, Place, Era, Object, or Org. No single canonical path. Tabs above ↑
3. Inline contextual threadsTap any dashed-underline term to expand. Shows description + "Also referenced in" links to every other test page that mentions the same term.
4. Object-first entryThe locomotive page starts with a physical thing — not a person — and surfaces Palmer, Beverly, the museum through it.
5. Serendipity + Surprise Me"This day in Stadum history" shows real events matching today's date. "Surprise me" picks an unvisited page weighted by sessionStorage.
6. Shareable filtered viewsOn Palmer's page, filtering story atoms to "craft" updates the URL to
?theme=craft. That URL opens the same filtered view.7. Parallel timelinePalmer's page shows his and Signe's timelines side-by-side. Shared years highlighted. "When Palmer was wiring farms, Signe was teaching school."
8. You-are-here: 4 axesEvery page sidebar shows time strip, North Dakota geography minimap (all nodes plotted), era chips, and type chips.
9. Auto-generated backlinksEvery page shows every other page that references it — not curated by hand, generated from the BACKLINKS data map.
10. Faceted browseCombine tags: [generation-1 + electrification] filters to matching nodes instantly. Matched tags highlighted in gold. ↑ above