Finding foreclosures

For a class assignment on activity-based design, I decided to look up details on charlotte.com about foreclosures in my neighborhood and my area of town.
I knew the map existed because it ran in the paper, out of register, and had "refers" to an interactive map online. I and others had tried to access it previously, when the first refers appeared over the weekend, and then also during regular business hours on Monday. The connection would generally time out, because the server was overwhelmed with hits from others. I also knew this search would have elements of systems-based design because it's using a database, and I've done similar property searches in the past.
Here are steps:
Go to charlotte.com
Found latest foreclosure story right away, because it's part of a continuing series and thus at the top of the page.
Found interactive map link right away.
Clicked on map link at 8:11 a.m. Map came up within 30 seconds, much better than previous hits. Perhaps we should've published a note for readers/surfers when the map was first put on the site, warning users that initial traffic would be heavy, and interested parties could come back later for more successful service. If readers tried earlier and it didn't work, I suspect many may have given up, decided it was "broken" and not worth a retry.
Viewed source (wouldn't normally do this.) Info says: ArcIMS is the mapserver, MS SQLServer the street data server, with scripting in ASP and VBScript. Wish it was a Google map, which I'm comfortable with using because of previous experience.
Found general visual of cross streets of my side of town. Previous web surfing has honed my skills in this area, and my brain remembers the visual picture.
Clicked once to zoom in, got general picture of my area of town and the density of foreclosures. Saw nearby neighborhood with lots of foreclosures; saw that my neighborhood had some, but not many compared to visual representation of county as a whole.
Clicked to zoom in again. Waited about a minute.
Next picture gave me specific neighborhood info, with identifiable houses and streets.
Clicked on left of map, trying to recenter. Waited about 20 seconds. Map didn't recenter. Maybe I didn't have "recenter" radio button checked.
Map defaults to "show property info" radio button being checked, so I decide to see what info. I can get on a specific house in my neighborhood.
I click on square for a house. I get a box with specific address, and information that tells me to click again on it to go to county property info to learn more.
I click on info. link, and get quick info in a new window, in a systems-based form, about all sales for the house, and see it took 11 months from time of foreclosure to close of sale to a new real owner, not a bank. Speed seems to indicate the county servers are much larger/faster/closer than the ones hosting our map.
I close that window and return to where I was previously.
I try the recenter button to look at nearby area with lots of foreclosures. It recenters.
I click again to get property info., because I'm not trained to have to click a radio button to change my request for info. I expect the computer to know what I want to do by how close I've zoomed in.
I wait 30 seconds, click "show property info." radio button, click on a particular house in a cluster of foreclosures, and wait for about a minute.
Actually wait about 2 minutes. I renew my coffee while waiting. Return to computer.
Box showing three addresses comes up and asks me to click to go to county website for more info. I choose and click one address, and systems-based info. comes up quickly. I look over data, close popup window.
Stop, deciding I have enough info. Brain remembers general details about housing size, quality and price, and notes that more than one foreclosure on a street or cul de sac seem to affect surrounding homes, while isolated foreclosures seem to have little effect. Also note that revaluation rates also seem to have an effect -- those with higher tax values face more foreclosure issues in some neighborhoods.
Try to figure out how to return to charlotte.com from map. No obvious link back to home, so I use back button. Eight clicks.
I'm home, scan the news, click on one or two spot news stories, find blogs (for which I've been trained), visit a couple (69 responses to a transportation post, plus a proposal to meet up in person and discuss the issues!), four responses to "What is the new adulthood?" by a different blogger, all fairly surface.
Done.