I have a page on my site with some of my favorite site designs that are showing up on the web. These are not my sites, but they are the kinds of designs that I like in a website. There are different reasons that I picked these site designs, they all look good and are clear and easy to use. The graphics are good, but not overpowering. Sometimes I just like a picture or the name. Some of the sites are not in English and I still know what they are about.
The newest one is called Langkawi Nature, Wildlife and Birding Tours.
I think that you can probably see from just the thumbnail here that that’s what the site looks like. Jungle looking, very green and lush. Nice use of shadows.
The navigation is right below the header and is easy to use.
I like that you see a new first page header picture every time you visit.
It really makes the site seem fresh
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There are many things about designing web sites that have changed from the beginning of cyber time and many things that haven’t. I try to point out a well done site every week in my Favorite Site Design category.
The truth is that while the look of well done websites has gotten cleaner, easier to read and interact with, the main goal of a website is still to please the visitor. It doesn’t matter whether you are trying to sell, entertain or educate them, you need to offer something that is pleasing to the eye of most human visitors, as well as, offering something that interests them.
Business Week has a nice article on what to do when designing a site today and I noticed it’s almost the same good advice that worked well ten years ago.
I’m a T-Mobile customer and have been for quite a while now. When I was shopping for a new smartphone I went to quite a few stores and spoke to many salespeople. When I finally found Ian Hoover at the Mall at Robinson store (lower level) I knew that I had the right guy.
Ian answered all of my questions right away and corrected the misconceptions that I got from some of the other people. He convinced me right away that he knew what he was talking about and he was more interested in helping me get what I needed than what he wanted to sell me. He also didn’t pressure me when I told him it would be at least a week before I was ready to buy.
Being a good salesperson Ian also let me know about some of the things that T-Mobile would be introducing in the future that I might want to check out. One of them was called T-Mobile HopSpot @Home.
It seems very cool. You get a router/modem and they port your current phone number to it. Then you get unlimited VOIP Internet US calling for $10 a month. All I do is to keep my DSL which I would do anyway. I think it’s a great idea since I plan to keep my home phone and I will probably try it, but I’m not ordering on the Internet. I’m going back to visit Ian.
I probably will still advise not using Flash for making the navigation for your pages, but Google is starting to look at your Flash pages with new eyes.
They still probably won’t see your site like your human visitors do, but it looks like things are getting better for them being able to know what’s on your page.
I believe that even though I don’t use much Flash anything that helps people find exactly what they are looking for is a good thing.
