Best Designed Website of All Time

philtaylor

Whats everybodies favourite website from a design point a few?

ChicoMendez

philtaylor wrote:

Whats everybodies favourite website from a design point a few?

http://webpageireland.com/ :rolleyes:

corkie

ChicoMendez wrote:

http://webpageireland.com/ :rolleyes:

lol : [thread]2055156468[/thread]
For those of you, who may not have read it.

Huggles

Oh jesus stop giving him traffic.

I have thousands of favourite sites. Many for very different reasons. For example, sites with excellent navigational features, sites that are graphically appealing, clever use of flash, sexy ajax forms and logins and so on. Lots and lots of criteria to be taken into account.

I actually really like the discover ireland site. Very Web 2.0. They did a great job.

To answer you I'd almost have to break it up into a top 50.

Laslo

TheGooner wrote:

I actually really like the discover ireland site. Very Web 2.0. They did a great job.

Yeah, nice site that. And the multi-lingual aspect is very impressive. Does anyone know which Web shop developed it?

Huggles

Laslo wrote:

Yeah, nice site that. And the multi-lingual aspect is very impressive. Does anyone know which Web shop developed it?

According to bottom left.

Fluid Rock.

Kudos!

Goodshape

www.discoverireland.com ? really? I wouldn't rate that too highly at all in terms of design.

Couple of things which bug me straight away (other than simply not liking the look of it) : the links at bottom right in the menu, 'Explore by map', 'Weather', 'Radio' -- why isn't the whole button a link? I have to hover right over the text to click... bit of a pet-peeve of mine. If you're going to have a button style graphic, then make it a bloody button style link too!

Trying to minimise the 'Search' box (which seems like a useless feature anyway) minimises the 'Find somewhere to stay' box instead. Looks like someone forgot to edit their copy+pasted javascript. Lazy.

There's a few other things too (what's with the background graphics for the tabs on this page? Yuch.)... but I guess we're not here to criticise (too late, I know).


Sites I like... I think Last.fm looks and works very well (but it's maybe gotten a bit 'busy' over the past year or so). As does Ars Technica. Jaiku is very nice too. No more than what's needed.

AARRRGH

Google. Seriously. I hate cluttered websites.

Time Magazine

Not the best designed website by a long shot, but I really like Red vs Blue. Background makes it.

Huggles

No. http://www.discoverireland.ie/

Goodshape wrote:

www.discoverireland.com ? really? I wouldn't rate that too highly at all in terms of design.

Couple of things which bug me straight away (other than simply not liking the look of it) : the links at bottom right in the menu, 'Explore by map', 'Weather', 'Radio' -- why isn't the whole button a link? I have to hover right over the text to click... bit of a pet-peeve of mine. If you're going to have a button style graphic, then make it a bloody button style link too!

Trying to minimise the 'Search' box (which seems like a useless feature anyway) minimises the 'Find somewhere to stay' box instead. Looks like someone forgot to edit their copy+pasted javascript. Lazy.

There's a few other things too (what's with the background graphics for the tabs on this page? Yuch.)... but I guess we're not here to criticise (too late, I know).


Sites I like... I think Last.fm looks and works very well (but it's maybe gotten a bit 'busy' over the past year or so). As does Ars Technica. Jaiku is very nice too. No more than what's needed.

randombar

Class All right just a bit too long to load, some statistic about people judging a site in 8 seconds or something?

Same problem again with .com and .ie

Goodshape

TheGooner wrote:

No. http://www.discoverireland.ie/

Whoops, my bad

The .ie is better alright. Still not stand-out fantastic though. Very busy altogether.

aidan_walsh

GaryCocs wrote:

Same problem again with .com and .ie

Yes and no. The .com is used as a international catch all site, and used to direct the visitor to the correct site. The .ie is the main local site. This case is a good illustration of how .com and a local TLD can work well together, because either way you'll end up where you want to be though it may take one more click.

If we could see a bit more consistancy it would be great, but then we are talking about two different organisations. Still, thats no excuse for discoverireland.com to have the .ie address in the image, and then link to ireland.ie instead. WTF is that about.

AARRRGH

Discoverireland.ie as the best designed website of all time?

It's certainly very functional, but it's a bit too busy for me. Like, I have to stare at it for a minute to see everything that's going on. Personally I prefer websites where I "get it" immediately, e.g. see my sig.

forbairt

If I had to pick only one website ... it'd probably have to be google.com

simple .. straight to the point ... seems to link to nearly everything :P good branding of the site ... definitely catches the eye ... very useful site ...

For a flash based site ... I'd probably pick an old one but truely a favourite of mine and I still love it years later http://www.lookandfeel.com/index.asp

Huggles

dublindude wrote:

Discoverireland.ie as the best designed website of all time?

It's certainly very functional, but it's a bit too busy for me. Like, I have to stare at it for a minute to see everything that's going on. Personally I prefer websites where I "get it" immediately, e.g. see my sig.

No I didn't say that.

I said it was one I'd seen recently that I thought they did a good job with.

AARRRGH

TheGooner wrote:

No I didn't say that.

I said it was one I'd seen recently that I thought they did a good job with.

OK, well this topic is "Best Designed Website of All Time".

Huggles

dublindude wrote:

OK, well this topic is "Best Designed Website of All Time".

Will you read my post.

Jaysis.

smcelhinney

Graphically, discoverireland.ie is quite nice, but its far too buggy in Camino/Safari for me to take it seriously.

AARRRGH

TheGooner wrote:

Will you read my post.

Jaysis.

Calm down. :rolleyes:

This topic is about "best website design of all time" not "a website I like but isn't the best of all time".

Goodshape

The Google front-page is great in it's less-is-more simplicity - and was quite revolutionary at the time - but looking at, for instance, their news aggregator service, I don't think the site as a whole is anything particularly special. However, Gmail and Google Reader are so good that it almost feels like they shouldn't qualify --- they operate more like applications than webpages. Great stuff.

On the otherhand, Ars Technica presents an awful lot of information but is designed in such a way that my eyes seem drawn to what's important first and foremost. A much better design feat than Google, imho.

BBC News is another well designed high-density site. It's got what you want where you want it, and just enough nice little touches here and there to keep you interested.

Apple.com always looks great too. Although I'm not too fussed on it's current iteration.

forbairt

Goodshape wrote:

BBC News is another well designed high-density site. It's got what you want where you want it, and just enough nice little touches here and there to keep you interested.

That would be another one of my favourites and one I check quite regularly ...

Laslo

Discover Ireland's not bad but the best designed site of all time? Not a chickens chance.

forbairt

Having had a bit more of a think about this ...


One of the best designed sites .... that changes its design constantly ...

http://www.csszengarden.com/

I don't think I know of any other site ... that keeps people coming back to the same content time and time again ... ...

AARRRGH

http://en.www.mozilla.com/en/firefox/ keeps things simple and pretty...

Deliverance XXV

Just to throw this one in there...
The Dunnes Stores website is a
favourite of mine. it's layout and use of flash gives it a thumbs up from me.
(Not a fan of the shop though :rolleyes: )

prospect

Impossible to pick just one, but current favourites are:

www.rte.ie
www.komplett.ie
www.apple.com

All very clean designs. Easy to navuigate and just the right amount of information on the page.

forbairt

prospect wrote:

Impossible to pick just one, but current favourites are:

www.rte.ie

All very clean designs. Easy to navuigate and just the right amount of information on the page.

I have to admit I hate the rte design ... the other two though I love ... though I can find it a bit annoying on the komplett site drilling down to exactly what you want ..

Time Magazine

I'm no expert, but I really think some of you are going wayyy too basic. I like a bit of creativity and flair in a design, not just a "nice" website ala Apple.

Something like this, and it was designed in 2003!

grahamor

Yeah, the new Komplett site is great, a big improvement on their old site. I especially like their banners.

Yeah the rte site is a bit boring in it's layout but the site is a good resource

probe

The Swedish Government portal - a rare combination of functionality and pleasing appearance that answers the "who, what, when, where and why" type of question without wasting one's time. Seldom found in English language websites.

www.sweden.gov.se

.probe