5 ms·

Web App Site Designs

81 points by iisbum 16y ago

borski 16y ago
Not trying to just be contradictory here, but does anyone else notice that almost all these websites look the same? I mean, CarbonMade stands out, but almost all these other websites, from a 10-foot view, look exactly the same. Is that because the design is "right" in some way? Because to me, it just means that some of these website designs don't stand out in any way.
- thecombjelly 16y ago
  It is true. Most of these websites have what I call 'popular SaaS'. I don't know if it is the 'right' design, but it seems to be used by many web apps. There is a menu bar across the top with 'why x', 'demo', 'features', 'blog', 'signup' or 'pricing', and 'login'. Below is a nice picture or screen shot with a punch line and a big call-to-action button. And below that is misc boxes of text trying to communicate more about the product. This seems to be a lot of what you want to communicate to potential buyers and is claimed to be one of the most effective designs (one source is the book Start Small Stay Small http://startupbook.net http://startupbook.net). It seems to be a standard of sorts. It would be interesting to know if this design is proven to be the most effective basic design known for selling web apps, or what is better.
- olegkikin 16y ago
  Yeah, the author has a very boring taste. Here's a list I made in 5 minutes (and I think it's way more interesting): http://www.roostblog.com/ http://www.roostblog.com/ http://www.heathwaller.com/ http://www.heathwaller.com/ http://www.bohemiadesign.co.uk/ http://www.bohemiadesign.co.uk/ http://www.sproutfund.org/spring/ http://www.sproutfund.org/spring/ http://www.racket.net.au/ http://www.racket.net.au/ http://www.thirdculturestudios.com/ http://www.thirdculturestudios.com/ http://jakeprzespo.com/ http://jakeprzespo.com/ http://www.brewshop.co.nz/ http://www.brewshop.co.nz/ http://patterns.ideo.com/ http://patterns.ideo.com/ http://www.unconventionalguides.com/ http://www.unconventionalguides.com/ http://www.eightytwodesign.com/new/ http://www.eightytwodesign.com/new/ http://www.boxee.tv/ http://www.boxee.tv/
  - MJR 16y ago
    While these may be nice sites, your list isn't comparable to his list. His list contains 30 web applications. Your list has two web stores and the rest are generally content sites. So you've kind of missed the point on why he put the list together. I don't agree with your opinion about his taste either. He's pointing to 30 sites which generally focus on driving new sales of their products. While they may have a similar approach, the list does contain a variety of styles and variations. I suspect the similarities in the designs speaks more to the selling process and the mainstream techniques used to drive sales rather than the author's "boring taste".
  - _pius 16y ago
    While there are some interesting designs here, it's also worth noting that few (perhaps just one?) of your links are for web apps, which was the whole theme of the post. Interestingly enough, the most obvious web app amongst your links (http://www.boxee.tv http://www.boxee.tv) does indeed have a somewhat similar design to those find in the original article.
- nhebb 16y ago
  Since these are web applications and the front pages are focused on conversion, the take away should be that there is an emerging pattern. When visitors come to a site, which is more beneficial, a unique design, or a common look and feel that makes it easier to predict where to read, where to click, and how to navigate the landing page?
- jrockway 16y ago
  Is that because the design is "right" in some way? Nope. It's just that all the designers currently like ripping off 37signals. In a few years there will be another hard-on-inducing design, and then everything will look like that.
theDoug 16y ago
Despite the death of "Web 2.0" as a term, the trend for large Helvetica continues unabated! There are some great services in the list, though. Their work is the stuff that's more impressive than their design.
- Breefield 16y ago
  There's no large Helvetica on http://recurseapp.com http://recurseapp.com (my app)
- sahillavingia 16y ago
  This is pushed much by the iPhone. It's super-easy to just go with Helvetica (I do it all the time...) because people associate it with the iPhone. Besides, it's a nice font. :)
sushi 16y ago
I had never seen http://www.playlistnow.fm/ http://www.playlistnow.fm/ mentioned in this list before. It's insanely beautiful website and you can find playlist for the work you are doing. Like if you are coding mention it there and it will find playlists for that and so on. Pretty cool website. Not my website btw.
- Breefield 16y ago
  Yeah, this service seems awesome.
  - 2arrs2ells 16y ago
    Except that if it gets big enough, the record labels are going to put it out of business...
kacy 16y ago
Thanks for the link! I agree that there are some nice designs there that will inspire me in the future. However, I wanted to remind you of the Hacker News Guidelines: "If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids."" - http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html I up-voted anyway though! Good stuff. Just a reminder for the future. :-)
- KevinMS 16y ago
  I'm trying but I cant figure out the reason for this guideline. Or why, as a reader, I would care if a subject began with a integer? I know a lot of spammy submissions are like this on sites like digg, but if blocking spam was this easy, I could just filter my inbox on the exact phrase "viagra" and defeat all spammers worldwide.
  - wwortiz 16y ago
    My guess is that the number is not meaningful for any reason other than providing a count. 30 Beautiful Web App Site Designs is no more meaningful than Beautiful Web App Site Designs, no new information or useful information is included in the number 30.
    - brianlash 16y ago
      I think it does. The former tells us to expect a curated list of more than 29 but fewer than 31 eye-catching designs, at least in OPs eyes. The latter is just bleh, like a statement on a resume that reads "I managed a lot of money when I worked for a really huge company." Far more compelling is a line like "I oversaw a fund of more than $[Big Number] during my tenure as Investment Manager at [Company Name]." I think that's what's going on here. I'm not saying that makes it right in the eyes of PG or in terms of the guidelines. But IMHO those 2 characters tell us a lot about what to expect on the other side.
619Cloud 16y ago
postmarkapp is a great SMTP service. We use them, and recommend highly.
- davidedicillo 16y ago
  how does that compare to something like Sendgrid (that is awesome btw)?
jasonkester 16y ago
This is a good opportunity to reinforce the #1 rule in website design: You have three seconds. As in, that's all the time the average person is going to spend on your site before hitting the back button or deciding to invest more time. If you can't get your message across in those 3 seconds, you lose. Nearly half the sites on that list pass the test for me. I can tell that "this is a website that will help me invoice clients", and decide whether that's something I care about. The other half though, I have no idea what they do and likely never will. If I had to pick a Rule #2, it might be: Make sure they remember your name. Half those sites (alas, a different half) I'll never find my way back to because the name is either not given prominently, not memorable, or easily misspelled. I might remember that I saw something called Iceberg, but I certainly wouldn't know to spell it with two R's. Fortunately for me, typing in iceberg.com will get me to a nice looking web app with a blue background, a picture of an iceberg, and something to sell me. Unfortunately for Icebrrg, it's somebody else's business.
- imp 16y ago
  There are actually two different apps on that list with the name Iceberg, and neither uses iceberg.com.
  - jasonkester 16y ago
    Wow. I would have expected that the one would at least have its own domain name sorted out. It seems that both fail then. At least the one shows up in a google search (#5 result for its own product name, which is also not a good sign.)
thomasz 16y ago
As soon as a printout of postmarkapp.com reaches the desk of someone at DHL's legal department, they will sued into oblivion for trademark infringement.
- sp4rki 16y ago
  Because it features the color yellow? Inspired maybe, but they don't use any trademarkable elements on their design, and doesn't even have anything similar to DHL's website than the colors (which are not even the same really). They're not even in the same industry.
Tichy 16y ago
Am I the only one who has become a bit bored by the current trend in web design? Those sites all look the same to me, and the big fonts make feel stupid. W I T H A B I G F O N T I H A V E T O R E A D R E A L L Y S L O W...
efsavage 16y ago
The list seems to be more "web app homepage designs", and doesn't really offer any evaluation (or commentary) on the actual design of the apps.
kirpekar 16y ago
In a couple of years, you should see the same blog post with a different title "Designs that are so 2010"

81 points by iisbum 16y ago

Not trying to just be contradictory here, but does anyone else notice that almost all these websites look the same? I mean, CarbonMade stands out, but almost all these other websites, from a 10-foot view, look exactly the same. Is that because the design is "right" in some way? Because to me, it just means that some of these website designs don't stand out in any way.

thecombjelly 16y ago
It is true. Most of these websites have what I call 'popular SaaS'. I don't know if it is the 'right' design, but it seems to be used by many web apps. There is a menu bar across the top with 'why x', 'demo', 'features', 'blog', 'signup' or 'pricing', and 'login'. Below is a nice picture or screen shot with a punch line and a big call-to-action button. And below that is misc boxes of text trying to communicate more about the product. This seems to be a lot of what you want to communicate to potential buyers and is claimed to be one of the most effective designs (one source is the book Start Small Stay Small http://startupbook.net http://startupbook.net). It seems to be a standard of sorts. It would be interesting to know if this design is proven to be the most effective basic design known for selling web apps, or what is better.
olegkikin 16y ago
Yeah, the author has a very boring taste. Here's a list I made in 5 minutes (and I think it's way more interesting): http://www.roostblog.com/ http://www.roostblog.com/ http://www.heathwaller.com/ http://www.heathwaller.com/ http://www.bohemiadesign.co.uk/ http://www.bohemiadesign.co.uk/ http://www.sproutfund.org/spring/ http://www.sproutfund.org/spring/ http://www.racket.net.au/ http://www.racket.net.au/ http://www.thirdculturestudios.com/ http://www.thirdculturestudios.com/ http://jakeprzespo.com/ http://jakeprzespo.com/ http://www.brewshop.co.nz/ http://www.brewshop.co.nz/ http://patterns.ideo.com/ http://patterns.ideo.com/ http://www.unconventionalguides.com/ http://www.unconventionalguides.com/ http://www.eightytwodesign.com/new/ http://www.eightytwodesign.com/new/ http://www.boxee.tv/ http://www.boxee.tv/
- MJR 16y ago
  While these may be nice sites, your list isn't comparable to his list. His list contains 30 web applications. Your list has two web stores and the rest are generally content sites. So you've kind of missed the point on why he put the list together. I don't agree with your opinion about his taste either. He's pointing to 30 sites which generally focus on driving new sales of their products. While they may have a similar approach, the list does contain a variety of styles and variations. I suspect the similarities in the designs speaks more to the selling process and the mainstream techniques used to drive sales rather than the author's "boring taste".
- _pius 16y ago
  While there are some interesting designs here, it's also worth noting that few (perhaps just one?) of your links are for web apps, which was the whole theme of the post. Interestingly enough, the most obvious web app amongst your links (http://www.boxee.tv http://www.boxee.tv) does indeed have a somewhat similar design to those find in the original article.
nhebb 16y ago
Since these are web applications and the front pages are focused on conversion, the take away should be that there is an emerging pattern. When visitors come to a site, which is more beneficial, a unique design, or a common look and feel that makes it easier to predict where to read, where to click, and how to navigate the landing page?
jrockway 16y ago
Is that because the design is "right" in some way? Nope. It's just that all the designers currently like ripping off 37signals. In a few years there will be another hard-on-inducing design, and then everything will look like that.

theDoug 16y ago

Despite the death of "Web 2.0" as a term, the trend for large Helvetica continues unabated! There are some great services in the list, though. Their work is the stuff that's more impressive than their design.

Breefield 16y ago
There's no large Helvetica on http://recurseapp.com http://recurseapp.com (my app)
sahillavingia 16y ago
This is pushed much by the iPhone. It's super-easy to just go with Helvetica (I do it all the time...) because people associate it with the iPhone. Besides, it's a nice font. :)

sushi 16y ago

I had never seen http://www.playlistnow.fm/ http://www.playlistnow.fm/ mentioned in this list before. It's insanely beautiful website and you can find playlist for the work you are doing. Like if you are coding mention it there and it will find playlists for that and so on. Pretty cool website. Not my website btw.

Breefield 16y ago
Yeah, this service seems awesome.
- 2arrs2ells 16y ago
  Except that if it gets big enough, the record labels are going to put it out of business...

kacy 16y ago

Thanks for the link! I agree that there are some nice designs there that will inspire me in the future. However, I wanted to remind you of the Hacker News Guidelines: "If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids."" - http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html I up-voted anyway though! Good stuff. Just a reminder for the future. :-)

KevinMS 16y ago
I'm trying but I cant figure out the reason for this guideline. Or why, as a reader, I would care if a subject began with a integer? I know a lot of spammy submissions are like this on sites like digg, but if blocking spam was this easy, I could just filter my inbox on the exact phrase "viagra" and defeat all spammers worldwide.
- wwortiz 16y ago
  My guess is that the number is not meaningful for any reason other than providing a count. 30 Beautiful Web App Site Designs is no more meaningful than Beautiful Web App Site Designs, no new information or useful information is included in the number 30.
  - brianlash 16y ago
    I think it does. The former tells us to expect a curated list of more than 29 but fewer than 31 eye-catching designs, at least in OPs eyes. The latter is just bleh, like a statement on a resume that reads "I managed a lot of money when I worked for a really huge company." Far more compelling is a line like "I oversaw a fund of more than $[Big Number] during my tenure as Investment Manager at [Company Name]." I think that's what's going on here. I'm not saying that makes it right in the eyes of PG or in terms of the guidelines. But IMHO those 2 characters tell us a lot about what to expect on the other side.

619Cloud 16y ago

postmarkapp is a great SMTP service. We use them, and recommend highly.

davidedicillo 16y ago
how does that compare to something like Sendgrid (that is awesome btw)?

jasonkester 16y ago

This is a good opportunity to reinforce the #1 rule in website design: You have three seconds. As in, that's all the time the average person is going to spend on your site before hitting the back button or deciding to invest more time. If you can't get your message across in those 3 seconds, you lose. Nearly half the sites on that list pass the test for me. I can tell that "this is a website that will help me invoice clients", and decide whether that's something I care about. The other half though, I have no idea what they do and likely never will. If I had to pick a Rule #2, it might be: Make sure they remember your name. Half those sites (alas, a different half) I'll never find my way back to because the name is either not given prominently, not memorable, or easily misspelled. I might remember that I saw something called Iceberg, but I certainly wouldn't know to spell it with two R's. Fortunately for me, typing in iceberg.com will get me to a nice looking web app with a blue background, a picture of an iceberg, and something to sell me. Unfortunately for Icebrrg, it's somebody else's business.

imp 16y ago
There are actually two different apps on that list with the name Iceberg, and neither uses iceberg.com.
- jasonkester 16y ago
  Wow. I would have expected that the one would at least have its own domain name sorted out. It seems that both fail then. At least the one shows up in a google search (#5 result for its own product name, which is also not a good sign.)

thomasz 16y ago

As soon as a printout of postmarkapp.com reaches the desk of someone at DHL's legal department, they will sued into oblivion for trademark infringement.

sp4rki 16y ago
Because it features the color yellow? Inspired maybe, but they don't use any trademarkable elements on their design, and doesn't even have anything similar to DHL's website than the colors (which are not even the same really). They're not even in the same industry.

Tichy 16y ago

Am I the only one who has become a bit bored by the current trend in web design? Those sites all look the same to me, and the big fonts make feel stupid. W I T H A B I G F O N T I H A V E T O R E A D R E A L L Y S L O W...

efsavage 16y ago

The list seems to be more "web app homepage designs", and doesn't really offer any evaluation (or commentary) on the actual design of the apps.

kirpekar 16y ago

In a couple of years, you should see the same blog post with a different title "Designs that are so 2010"