The Matrix was a prototype for an online enterprise wide project management software package. It used a lot of graphical data visualization techniques that I developed and implemented (in Director).

The main functionality was aimed at project planning and resource management. It allowed one to see, at an enterprise level, the effects of moving project timelines or creating or canceling projects. It also showed the effects of the predicted workload on staff and skills pools. You could answer questions such as "when will we have some animation resources available and for how long" or "what would happen to the work load or this person if I moved start dates of these two projects" or "when is the soonest that the company could start this sort of project".
 
Click here for a slightly older but 98% functional version of The Matrix. This will not work under Mac OS X. You may need to install the Shockwave plugin.

Here are some notes on what The Matrix shows:

(1) When you go in you are offered a choice between 2 interfaces (skins). Mango is the most developed interface.

(2) You are then presented with a calendar and the projects in the enterprise. Scenario planning is done by a combination of direct manipulation of the visual data and a series of pop up menus that you get by right clicking or control clicking on a project. The main rule to understand with direct manipulation is that it will not allow you to alter the past. You can change the beginning and end date, the duration of phases the location of milestones, etc.

(3) Of the menus items (control click or right click), the Summary Windoid and the People Window are most interesting and useful for resource management. When the People window is up, you also get a week selection bar on the calendar so that you can examine any week visible. These windows update in real time if the projects are manipulated. If you drag the Summary window not by the title area but by the canter, it will update in real time.

(4) Holding the spacebar down will allow you to drag the whole calendar areas.
 
Click here for the latest version of the Matrix (968k).The graphics were improved, some of the functionality revised and extended (although some was unfinished). In particular it was made much less easy to edit projects (a system of privileges was envisaged). However if you click on "submit for review" from the Project toolkit you will get a series of slides that illustrate how the Matrix was envisioned to fit into a far broader enterprise management system. You may need to install the Shockwave plugin.
 
 
Some technical notes:

The scroll bars are all lingo based.
Data used to be read in via external files - I have disabled this for the purposes of this demo.