Well-designed Webpages

as my site is due for an overhaul i’ve been looking around.

IDEO bugs me… feel like everything is squeezed on the first page. and i still hate Flash-heavy websites. see design students using it alot. too much imo. recently visited Pentagram and surprised at how clean. more to my liking.

so what are your favorites from a design perspective? with fast load up for all, etc. links please. to any sites that provide a nice user experience.

Here’s and example of a flash site that doesn’t take forever to load:

Huh, that’s funny, always wanted to know about these guys after driving past their rusty sign in the west loop!

Re; loading times, I’m not sure why designers don’t come up with more clever ways of passing the time (or better, disguising the load) than the standard progress bar!

Anyone seen any particularly clever methods?

Is this post by V. from VT?

Is this post by V. from VT?

No, I’m from Chicago.

An all flash site but nice n light, very simple and, I think, engaging.

http://www.grouppartners.net - A clever company too.

There are flash engines around which reduce the size of finished swf files.

Another very clean and informative all HTML site is http://www.brkstevens.com

Personally I do not like the Pentagram site, http://www.pentagram.com/start.htm, I think it is too bland and the viewer is going to loose interest very fast. This is assuming that they are using their site as a marketing tool, not just an informational peice.

Personallay I feel that though flash offers improved interactivity and presentation options, HTML / XML is the most professional way to present a design firms site.

This is due to the fact that many companies and individuals, even today, choose not to install flash or shockwave drivers. For instance our two largest clients. Both are global leaders in thier respective industries, yet they only have the base IE 5.0 on their systems due to their IT departments concerns over “internet security risks presented within the plug-ins codeing.”

agree. Pentagram’s is a bit stark for me. but i kinda like the all-business attitude. familiar with BrkStvns. its okay. found one last week. forget now where i stored the link. but super simple. just tables. need to find it again and get next version of my site back on track.

Not sure if they are known in the states but here in England PDD is pretty much THE id consultancy that all others, with large scale ambition, benchmark against.

http://www.pdd.co.uk - All the white and shades of grey is perhaps looking a little dated now but I think it is still an excellent presentation of an ID company - every detail is well thought through, even the animated map.

Another I like is the Mozilla site, particularly the products page :
Firefox - Protect your life online with privacy-first products — Mozilla
It is all purist xhtml and css, as prescribed those at A List Apart

(http://www.alistapart.com a great resource site if you want to go down the css route following the principle of the semantic web)

All work for Mozilla is done for free by supporters. Don’t know who did the graphics for the product logos but I think the vibrancy and humour is spot for the target market. I have seen a couple of fairly bland sites brought to life by including a ‘Use Mozilla Firebird and reclaim the web’ logo.

I agree with you ML, I think flash is best used as a tool for interactivity and illustration of processes / relationships / product demonstrations. Two good examples are I think:

Macromedias navigation bar and flash demos:
http://www.macromedia.com
and, Ambient Devices site for its animated diagrams :
http://www.ambientdevices.com

I think what we came up with for the Index ID site was a unique pass-the-time-while-loading diversion.
http://www.indexid.com/flash
The sketched lines are pretty choppy, but the idea is there. I also wanted to allow the user to save what they sketched, and flip thru the sketchbook to see what others had saved but I ran out of time.

SOM Architects has a great ZUI-based site (zoomable UI.)
Great way to organize (narrow/deep IA) not so great to surf. But it intrinsically says something about the firm.

Damned impressive portfolio too.

Here’s one: [http://www.tse-tse.com/[url](http://www.tse-tse.com/[url)][/url]

it look funny
i like it and i think the color is nice

This is not a design company’s website, but it’s fun to watch:

Most likely it’s too long of an introduction to hold people’s attention, but I like the idea.

http://www.bobbyvandersluis.com/main/links.php

Check out the links under the various showcase and inspiration sections

Also good are:

http://www.dopeawards.com
http://www.favouritewebsiteawards.com
http://www.ultrashock.com

hey guys check out this blog…this is well designed blog ,coz evry thing is properly segregated n visually it gives ua feeling that every thing has its own importance…the matrix kind of a thing on top of the page has a visual impact on us …since its flowing down it creates a kind of intrest and makes us scroll down the page…
http://musicalwave.blogspot.com/