Good looking (and functioning) websites

[Captain]

If you come across any good looking or functioning websites, could you please link us up here? I'm doing a lot of design at the moment and inspiration is always quite useful...

[Jader7777]

www.homestarrunner.com

Simplicity is divine.

[Gayphen]

http://www.worldbestwebsites.com/

[Zelda]

this isnt exactly websites but this guy give tuits on a few different types of websites and some are really good i really like some of his designs..
http://www.photoshopstar.com

[Benjamin]

I've always fancied the layouts on this website to be honest.

Other than A-N, here (http://www.onerepublic.net/)'s a layout that appeals to me.

[MatrosRx]

I've always fancied the layouts on this website to be honest.

Other than A-N, here (http://www.onerepublic.net/)'s a layout that appeals to me.

I knew there would be brown nosers :P

[Zelda]

I've always fancied the layouts on this website to be honest.

Other than A-N, here (http://www.onerepublic.net/)'s a layout that appeals to me.

the site you linked that type of layout seems to be the flavor of the day understandably so its neat and proffesional the header is nice not keen on some of the other parts

[TSPhoenix]

www.homestarrunner.com

Simplicity is divine.
So is flexibility of which HSR has none. Without the Homestar All-In-One plugin the display window on HSR is woefully small leaving the other 5/6 of the area blank.

I've always fancied the layouts on this website to be honest.

Other than A-N, here (http://www.onerepublic.net/)'s a layout that appeals to me.
Awful, about 50% of what I see is a fat load of nothing, on shorter screens it'd be worse yet. I know homepages shouldn't be over cluttered but they need some content. On top of all that this site still isn't that neat despite is lack of content.

http://www.worldbestwebsites.com/
Ironically the website itself is terrible. Also there are sooooo many dead links.

Also how did this classify? http://www.photographymuseum.com/

Some of the site there like this http://www.projectcensored.org/ are okay, but many of them are not that great, whether it be they aren't even center aligned, use a staggering four content columns or die when the text size is changed (like projectcensored.org).
http://www.globalissues.org/ is a good example of how a site should behave when text size is increaced (using the IE/Firefox2 method, not the newfangled Opera/Firefox3 one).

I like this one http://www.popsci.com/
Take note of the tabbed and tagged news posts. If you cut out the article preview you'd have a similar layout to what A-N has now, but nicer. The logo is also nice and clean which helps.

The best example that I can think of at the moment is http://www.wired.com/
Their chromeless approach give room for bigger pictures and more content with still less clutter.

Hope I was helpful.

[Sensitive Salaryman]

I'll post some nice sites later, I hope. But in my opinion well designed websites usually lack the following:

- Vertically huge headers.
- Flash menus for navigation or anything essential that is 'flashed' - you shouldn't rely on a plug in for navigation, also you can't 'middle-click' to open in a new tab.
- Flash splash introductions, and especially those with a "Skip intro >" link WITHIN the actual Flash animation.
- Typical Web 2.0 layouts (plain white bg, shiny header, typical icons, you know the look)
- Typical colour schemes (eg. anything overly blue, though it works well on AN!)
- The monopoly of one font.

[Snerkie]

WELL...there's The FWA (http://www.thefwa.com/), a bunch of nice websites there :) Then you can do the whole easy finding CSS Beauty (http://www.cssbeauty.com/gallery/), which shows lots of sexy website, CSS Drive (http://www.cssdrive.com/) which has more sexy websites...OR you could just go here (http://www.alvit.de/blog/article/the-state-of-the-web-css-galleries-and-showcases-2006)for a list of CSS design gallery sites. They always show heaps of inspirational stuff.

[Zelda]

The best example that I can think of at the moment is http://www.wired.com/
Their chromeless approach give room for bigger pictures and more content with still less clutter.

Hope I was helpful.

in terms of usability and getting the job done yes but i wouldnt say it is a good looking design because (artistically speaking ) there is no design

[Snerkie]

Actually the Wired site is a horribly designed site. Even how they got the job done is horrible. They used a serif font which is proven to be the worst font to be used when there's a lot of words to read as it's difficult on the eyes. They've compacted waaayyy too much information in such a small space and you eyes can just jump from top to bottom and you leave...yeah that's just one ugly site.

[bigsim]

They used a serif font which is proven to be the worst font to be used when there's a lot of words to read as it's difficult on the eyes.

I agree with everything else you said, but you have this bit upside-down - why do you think novels are written in serif fonts?

I like http://www.viget.com/inspire/ and I'm fond of http://www.wilshipley.com/blog/ too, for some reason. I'll have a geez around for some more.

[Snerkie]

I got no idea. But in my communications class i was taught that using serif fonts are the worst because they're just not easy to read...maybe why kids hate reading, lol.

[AndyC]

http://www.designshack.co.uk/

I used this a bit for my web design class at uni. At the bottom of the page, you can choose a gallery to look at using criteria based on layout, category or colour. Mostly CSS however.

[TSPhoenix]

Actually the Wired site is a horribly designed site. Even how they got the job done is horrible. They used a serif font which is proven to be the worst font to be used when there's a lot of words to read as it's difficult on the eyes. They've compacted waaayyy too much information in such a small space and you eyes can just jump from top to bottom and you leave...yeah that's just one ugly site.

I should have probably elaborated more on what about it I thought was good, which was the low chrome, just like how I liked only the articles from popsci.

While it is kinda cluttered (it totally ignores the rule of front pages where all different content TYPES should be visible from the top of the page) it appears less so due to having less frames unlike A-N which has up to three different frames on any given item. I'm trying to give insight contrasting what Captain is already familiar with.

For the rest of the site, I concur there are PLENTY of flaws; each block is a little too close to the next making it hard to look at, too many different size texts make it hard to focus on a passage, uses the 4-column layout I previously discussed, doesn't use the (admittedly unofficial) RSS icon for its feeds, turquoise text and date text is awful, spacing issues make page appear lopsided, poor title-image alignment, top bar is in a dumb place, some images have 1px border and others don't seemingly random, numerical date format. Okay so the site has a lot of issues but it still does a few things well which is what I was trying to point out.

http://astheria.com/ is a better example of the minimalism idea I was trying to get across, see how the wider spacing makes it more readable. The lack of fixed height posts is kinda disorientating though, you should try design to a grid as it helps the reader keep track of where they are.

I got no idea. But in my communications class i was taught that using serif fonts are the worst because they're just not easy to read...maybe why kids .... reading, lol.
For the most part all Windows fonts pre-Vista are pretty garbage. I'll agree Wired's font choices are crap though, the are fairly aliased also but that could just be my rendering.

WELL...there's The FWA (http://www.thefwa.com/), a bunch of nice websites there :) Then you can do the whole easy finding CSS Beauty (http://www.cssbeauty.com/gallery/), which shows lots of sexy website, CSS Drive (http://www.cssdrive.com/) which has more sexy websites...OR you could just go here (http://www.alvit.de/blog/article/the-state-of-the-web-css-galleries-and-showcases-2006)for a list of CSS design gallery sites. They always show heaps of inspirational stuff.
More irony, the FWA website does a whole lot of sucking itself and as far as I could see there is no scrollbar for people who don't have mouse wheels, did I mention minuscule non-resize-able text? To their credit they did make it so right clicking offers new windows and copy link functionality, not that I can read the tiny grey-on-white text to see what the hell I'm copying. Also I couldn't help but click over to advancewars.com only to discover possibly the worst flash website I've ever seen.

In fact it seems to be a rule that if you are to link to good content your gallery itself must suck and make it narly impossible to access the said content. The crummy thumbnails on one of those pages makes it impossible to assess the content before you go there which is not good when you want to look over a lot of layouts. CSSdrive dies on increacing text size and the latest 20 submissions page's sidebar is in the middle of the screen.

Design Shack is nice, not a fan of left aligned as it shifts the content a looong way from where it usually is, but at least it works and gives users the info they need. Sadly there are a few niggles like "I need a quick fix" not being coded to retract when the title bar is reclicked (natural PC behaviour) and that the whole bottom section is... well at the bottom.

(artistically speaking) there is no design
Artistically speaking that is a design choice in itself, in Wired's case its not all that pretty but minimalism is definitely a design.

[Snerkie]

More irony, the FWA website does a whole lot of sucking itself and as far as I could see there is no scrollbar for people who don't have mouse wheels, did I mention minuscule non-resize-able text? To their credit they did make it so right clicking offers new windows and copy link functionality, not that I can read the tiny grey-on-white text to see what the hell I'm copying. Also I couldn't help but click over to advancewars.com only to discover possibly the worst flash website I've ever seen.

...you wrote a lot of words so i gonna just answer the one thing that stabbed me in the head...it's not a scroll site :) it's just window sized site fit to you window, there is a "next" and "previous" buttons to scroll through the sites...YAY! Also the font colour issue could be your screen brightness as it's fine for me.

[Scott]

Just personally, I really like the design of the Ragnarok (http://iro.ragnarokonline.com/) website.

[Sensitive Salaryman]

I agree. (old post go boom)

[TSPhoenix]

More irony, the FWA website does a whole lot of sucking itself and as far as I could see there is no scrollbar for people who don't have mouse wheels, did I mention minuscule non-resize-able text? To their credit they did make it so right clicking offers new windows and copy link functionality, not that I can read the tiny grey-on-white text to see what the hell I'm copying. Also I couldn't help but click over to advancewars.com only to discover possibly the worst flash website I've ever seen.

...you wrote a lot of words so i gonna just answer the one thing that stabbed me in the head...it's not a scroll site :) it's just window sized site fit to you window, there is a "next" and "previous" buttons to scroll through the sites...YAY! Also the font colour issue could be your screen brightness as it's fine for me.

Try scrolling the mouse wheel, the entries scroll, yet there is no scroll bar. Tiny little barely visible Previous/Next buttons don't cut it. The scroll bar is a universal indicator saying "there is more content here" and without it you are assuming your user knows the site's quirks which is always dangerous. With web design the moment a user gets confused/disorientated/etc its game over. Web sites need to be 100% intuitive which sadly many sites aren't. With the text my brightness is relatively low meaning grey on white doesn't show so well, again this is their problem and not mine. Plus if the text is small on my .297 dot pitch monitor I dread to think what its like on .21s. If I can't read your site I'm not going to use it. Web design is never the user's problem and nor should it be.

[Captain]

Thanks for your help so far people. What about designs that you see as new and unique or a sign of things to come? I'm looking for new trends.

[Snerkie]

Well...not grass, if someone says grass or plants i will slap them...hate sites featuring grass. Really i don't think it's all about going with the latest trends but more setting your own, because some people may enjoy a sleek looking site while others like the over exagerated "OMGAWD, LOOK AT IT MOVE!!" sort of site

[jonny]

this is my site. www.mariokartaustralia.com

[Captain]

Well...not grass, if someone says grass or plants i will slap them...hate sites featuring grass. Really i don't think it's all about going with the latest trends but more setting your own, because some people may enjoy a sleek looking site while others like the over exagerated "OMGAWD, LOOK AT IT MOVE!!" sort of site

Bamboo green and all those grassy things seem to be one of the current trends due to all the environmental happenings. And who said we'd be going with the latest trends? I just want to see some trend-setting and cutting edge websites people might've stumbled upon...there's no problem with analysing things like that.

[TSPhoenix]

Cutting-edge in what way?

For site themselves I suggest having a look at these;
http://help.deviantart.com/ is very good, it feels like a local help application.
http://www.pokemon-gts.net/ is a very clear display of how information can be displayed
http://supersmashbros.ign.com/ not really impressive but relevant as it tackles the idea of sharing Wii content, its hardly elegant though.

As for technologies;
Also Flash Player 9.2 new media capabilities are pretty cutting edge in themselves. We could deploy its MP4 streaming technologies into the new forum/site.

Twitter, while many people use it to share the most boring bits of their lives with people that don't care it is a powerful platform. The ability to stream tweets into a news article could mean you guys can report events dynamically much like how Eurogamer does their E3 coverage (I'd put this in the above category but its obviously not live at the moment). Having technologies available to you won't hurt.

Another tech worth considering is our own public Google calendar that we can put all our wifi nights, important game releases and industry events onto.

Also some kind of fleshed out profile pages, if we could integrate the blogs into the main site they may actually be of some value.

[Boo!]

Also some kind of fleshed out profile pages, if we could integrate the blogs into the main site they may actually be of some value.
Yes please!

TSPhoenix has some awesome ideas though, I suggest you listen to him! :P

[JemaKnight]

I think the features that could come from another forum/site software (not just an update to phpbb3) could and probably would make the site look great.

Just play around with some other stuff, see how it looks, then maybe give us some shots and let the community decide on what looks best.