6 ms·

Best Website Designs of 2010

81 points by d4 16y ago

iamjustlooking 16y ago
Have there been any good looking regular websites released this year? A lot of best of lists tend to just be a list of portfolio and design studio websites.
- disponsible 16y ago
  I'll start (based on what was passing through Forrst and HN) - http://www.draftboardapp.com http://www.draftboardapp.com http://www.aerofs.com http://www.aerofs.com http://www.certtime.com http://www.certtime.com http://www.wuala.com http://www.wuala.com (not 2010, but still good)
- thingie 16y ago
  I really liked this one, for example. http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/ http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/
  - dawgr 16y ago
    It looks good but there are some bad choices in my opinion, like having transparent menu backgrounds. It decreases readability, for example on the menu "GO TO 2040", "Regional Mobility" merges with the background and it becomes hard to read.
- redstripe 16y ago
  Only app I spotted on that list was http://www.coolendar.com/ http://www.coolendar.com/ Seems to be hosted on google app engine. Nice example of simple design that does one thing very nicely. The rest looked like brochures. Not nearly as impressive as a functional app with a good UI.
dpcan 16y ago
What I wouldn't give to watch YouTube videos of some of these designers putting these sites together. Everything from how they get the background textures, to adding gradients, shadows, altering colors, everything. It would be amazing. I'd probably pay to watch a 10 part series from an accomplished designer who goes start to finish designing some of these nice sites.
- fname 16y ago
  I completely agree and would pay as well. I'm sure there are sites out there that fit this need, but the key is finding the accomplished designers out there willing to offer their best tips and tricks.
- jorde 16y ago
  Recently in Hacker News: http://blog.guestlistapp.com/post/2133037823/timelapse-designing-a-new-website http://blog.guestlistapp.com/post/2133037823/timelapse-desig... I just shows how one designer can put 4.5h in a landing page with design exploration. I would also like to see more in depth tutorials made by professionals. Something for the ThinkVitamin guys?
- krosaen 16y ago
  That would be cool. Perhaps even more interesting to me would be the thought process behind each decision, font choices, font sizes, spacing, layout etc. If you watch enough videos on lynda.com you can get pretty good at production of design, but design itself is much harder in my experience.
beoba 16y ago
Is there a way to just filter all posts containing '2010' in the title?
- theone 16y ago
  is this what you are looking for: http://www.google.com/search?&q=intitle:2010+site:news.ycombinator.com http://www.google.com/search?&q=intitle:2010+site:news.y...
  - beoba 16y ago
    I'd want the inverse of that...
    - solipsist 16y ago
      Maybe this? http://www.google.com/search?&q=intitle:2010+site:news.ycombinator.com#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=-2010+site:news.ycombinator.com&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=ca05a7bb65e82229 http://www.google.com/search?&q=intitle:2010+site:news.y...
danw 16y ago
I prefer the Drawar best of roundups because at least they provide a few paragraphs of explanation for each screenshot explaining what makes it exceptional: http://www.drawar.com/posts/2010-best-designs-2nd-quarter http://www.drawar.com/posts/2010-best-designs-2nd-quarter
wahnfrieden 16y ago
Are there lists like this of great design examples, except focused on web apps? These lists always let me down since they seem to bias static information sites over web applications, which is what I'm interested in. These are great designs, but mostly unhelpful to me because of this.
ryanwatkins 16y ago
These are 'pretty designs', some even just a one page, above the fold bit. More impressive would be comprehensive site design and UX for a site with a significant amount content, and not just a pretty home page.
- redthrowaway 16y ago
  I couldn't agree more. I've yet to see any of these sites do anything, with the possible exception of Ben, which was a cool html5 demo.
redthrowaway 16y ago
As a disinterested observer, I can say two things: 1) They're pretty 2) They piss me off These sites scream style over substance. I can't think of an Alexa top 500 site that uses this kind of design. The only one I frequent would be Grooveshark, and their design is highly functional. Between facebook, gmail, reddit, HN, and the various blogs and news sites I visit, 98% of my time online is spent on sites that look nothing like these. Even Hipmunk, while very web 2.0, is completely function-focused. These sites seem like they're pretty for the sake of being pretty, and I couldn't for the life of me say what a single one of them actually does.
- aneth 16y ago
  "an oversized number pad and graphic call and hangup keys that even a toddler could figure out" I had some trouble figuring this out.... style over substance indeed.
- cormullion 16y ago
  I think these are mostly "first impressions count" sites, rather than "you come back over and over again" sites, which have different requirements. Sometimes you only have a few seconds to make an impression...
  - redthrowaway 16y ago
    The only people for whom "first impressions count" is a better business model than "you come back over and over again" are web designers. These sites seem to exist only to fill the niche of sites that exist to please web designers. I can't imagine many successful startups employing these people.
    - true_religion 16y ago
      Quiet a few of these sites are actually landing pages for Web Design firms. A couple are for portfollio galleries of 3rd parties. The rest are pretty minimalistic and function focused.
- jamesteow 16y ago
Complete 16y ago
Not a single one makes use of the full width of the screen. All static layout. My websites all make use of the full screen width. I still think dynamic layout is better for usability. What do you think?
- jamesteow 16y ago
  I think it has to be taken on a case by case basis. It's extremely difficult to do a well-designed dynamic layout that doesn't look too boring/un-crafted.
  - dawgr 16y ago
    I read somewhere recently that most sites are using central layout now as opposed to fixed or liquid. I was looking for tutorials but I didn't find any, how would I go about making a central layout?
    - rossriley 16y ago
      you just need a container, make the width of it about 980px and set the margin like so: #page_container {margin:0px auto;}
      - dawgr 16y ago
        Alright thank you. Just one last question, within that 980px space, would the design be liquid or fixed? Maybe it sounds stupid but I'm kind of new to CSS.
        rossriley 16y ago
        That would be fixed then, you can subdivide that 980px space into columns but nothing inside will stretch beyond the boundaries. Eg. here's one of our sites: http://nxbus.co.uk http://nxbus.co.uk You can see that while there's a background image on the full page, all of the content is constrained to a 962px width container with the auto margins. This keeps it centred but with a fixed width.
navs 16y ago
jQuery appears to be the staple of modern web development/design. With javascript turned off, quite a few of these sites still remain pretty and usable.
ghrtjtykyu 16y ago
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johndar 16y ago
Except maybe for "ben the bodyguard", these websites are pretty much all "design" and no "web". In fact, most of these look like they were made straight out of Illustrator (a couple of those websites are actually huge images stitched together with no text!).
jimboyoungblood 16y ago
They kinda all look the same to me. Pretty, but unmemorable.
arnemart 16y ago
"Showcasing 65 of the Best Website Designs of 2010" I pretty much stopped reading and closed the tab after that. Seriously, 65?
pbhjpbhj 16y ago
We need a save option, elsewise I have to make a worthless comment just to flag the story!

81 points by d4 16y ago

Have there been any good looking regular websites released this year? A lot of best of lists tend to just be a list of portfolio and design studio websites.

disponsible 16y ago
I'll start (based on what was passing through Forrst and HN) - http://www.draftboardapp.com http://www.draftboardapp.com http://www.aerofs.com http://www.aerofs.com http://www.certtime.com http://www.certtime.com http://www.wuala.com http://www.wuala.com (not 2010, but still good)
thingie 16y ago
I really liked this one, for example. http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/ http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/
- dawgr 16y ago
  It looks good but there are some bad choices in my opinion, like having transparent menu backgrounds. It decreases readability, for example on the menu "GO TO 2040", "Regional Mobility" merges with the background and it becomes hard to read.
redstripe 16y ago
Only app I spotted on that list was http://www.coolendar.com/ http://www.coolendar.com/ Seems to be hosted on google app engine. Nice example of simple design that does one thing very nicely. The rest looked like brochures. Not nearly as impressive as a functional app with a good UI.

dpcan 16y ago

What I wouldn't give to watch YouTube videos of some of these designers putting these sites together. Everything from how they get the background textures, to adding gradients, shadows, altering colors, everything. It would be amazing. I'd probably pay to watch a 10 part series from an accomplished designer who goes start to finish designing some of these nice sites.

fname 16y ago
I completely agree and would pay as well. I'm sure there are sites out there that fit this need, but the key is finding the accomplished designers out there willing to offer their best tips and tricks.
jorde 16y ago
Recently in Hacker News: http://blog.guestlistapp.com/post/2133037823/timelapse-designing-a-new-website http://blog.guestlistapp.com/post/2133037823/timelapse-desig... I just shows how one designer can put 4.5h in a landing page with design exploration. I would also like to see more in depth tutorials made by professionals. Something for the ThinkVitamin guys?
krosaen 16y ago
That would be cool. Perhaps even more interesting to me would be the thought process behind each decision, font choices, font sizes, spacing, layout etc. If you watch enough videos on lynda.com you can get pretty good at production of design, but design itself is much harder in my experience.

beoba 16y ago

Is there a way to just filter all posts containing '2010' in the title?

theone 16y ago
is this what you are looking for: http://www.google.com/search?&q=intitle:2010+site:news.ycombinator.com http://www.google.com/search?&q=intitle:2010+site:news.y...
- beoba 16y ago
  I'd want the inverse of that...
  - solipsist 16y ago
    Maybe this? http://www.google.com/search?&q=intitle:2010+site:news.ycombinator.com#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=-2010+site:news.ycombinator.com&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=ca05a7bb65e82229 http://www.google.com/search?&q=intitle:2010+site:news.y...

danw 16y ago

I prefer the Drawar best of roundups because at least they provide a few paragraphs of explanation for each screenshot explaining what makes it exceptional: http://www.drawar.com/posts/2010-best-designs-2nd-quarter http://www.drawar.com/posts/2010-best-designs-2nd-quarter

wahnfrieden 16y ago

Are there lists like this of great design examples, except focused on web apps? These lists always let me down since they seem to bias static information sites over web applications, which is what I'm interested in. These are great designs, but mostly unhelpful to me because of this.

ryanwatkins 16y ago

These are 'pretty designs', some even just a one page, above the fold bit. More impressive would be comprehensive site design and UX for a site with a significant amount content, and not just a pretty home page.

redthrowaway 16y ago
I couldn't agree more. I've yet to see any of these sites do anything, with the possible exception of Ben, which was a cool html5 demo.

redthrowaway 16y ago

As a disinterested observer, I can say two things: 1) They're pretty 2) They piss me off These sites scream style over substance. I can't think of an Alexa top 500 site that uses this kind of design. The only one I frequent would be Grooveshark, and their design is highly functional. Between facebook, gmail, reddit, HN, and the various blogs and news sites I visit, 98% of my time online is spent on sites that look nothing like these. Even Hipmunk, while very web 2.0, is completely function-focused. These sites seem like they're pretty for the sake of being pretty, and I couldn't for the life of me say what a single one of them actually does.

aneth 16y ago
"an oversized number pad and graphic call and hangup keys that even a toddler could figure out" I had some trouble figuring this out.... style over substance indeed.
cormullion 16y ago
I think these are mostly "first impressions count" sites, rather than "you come back over and over again" sites, which have different requirements. Sometimes you only have a few seconds to make an impression...
- redthrowaway 16y ago
  The only people for whom "first impressions count" is a better business model than "you come back over and over again" are web designers. These sites seem to exist only to fill the niche of sites that exist to please web designers. I can't imagine many successful startups employing these people.
  - true_religion 16y ago
    Quiet a few of these sites are actually landing pages for Web Design firms. A couple are for portfollio galleries of 3rd parties. The rest are pretty minimalistic and function focused.
jamesteow 16y ago

Complete 16y ago

Not a single one makes use of the full width of the screen. All static layout. My websites all make use of the full screen width. I still think dynamic layout is better for usability. What do you think?

jamesteow 16y ago
I think it has to be taken on a case by case basis. It's extremely difficult to do a well-designed dynamic layout that doesn't look too boring/un-crafted.
- dawgr 16y ago
  I read somewhere recently that most sites are using central layout now as opposed to fixed or liquid. I was looking for tutorials but I didn't find any, how would I go about making a central layout?
  - rossriley 16y ago
    you just need a container, make the width of it about 980px and set the margin like so: #page_container {margin:0px auto;}
    - dawgr 16y ago
      Alright thank you. Just one last question, within that 980px space, would the design be liquid or fixed? Maybe it sounds stupid but I'm kind of new to CSS.
      - rossriley 16y ago
        That would be fixed then, you can subdivide that 980px space into columns but nothing inside will stretch beyond the boundaries. Eg. here's one of our sites: http://nxbus.co.uk http://nxbus.co.uk You can see that while there's a background image on the full page, all of the content is constrained to a 962px width container with the auto margins. This keeps it centred but with a fixed width.

navs 16y ago

jQuery appears to be the staple of modern web development/design. With javascript turned off, quite a few of these sites still remain pretty and usable.

ghrtjtykyu 16y ago

●---------------------------------------● Happy New Year◎,◎appy shopping ●---------------------------------------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●------ http://goo.gl/l5v0b http://goo.gl/l5v0b ------● ●---------------------------------------● Happy New Year◎,◎appy shopping ●---------------------------------------●

johndar 16y ago

Except maybe for "ben the bodyguard", these websites are pretty much all "design" and no "web". In fact, most of these look like they were made straight out of Illustrator (a couple of those websites are actually huge images stitched together with no text!).

jimboyoungblood 16y ago

They kinda all look the same to me. Pretty, but unmemorable.

arnemart 16y ago

"Showcasing 65 of the Best Website Designs of 2010" I pretty much stopped reading and closed the tab after that. Seriously, 65?

pbhjpbhj 16y ago

We need a save option, elsewise I have to make a worthless comment just to flag the story!