A Look at 10 of the 50 Best Websites of 2007
January 21st, 2008 | by valiik |I decided to take the top 10 sites from Time Magazine’s 50 Best Sites of 2007 and briefly review each of them here. I think we can all benefit from analyzing each of these sites. In doing so, perhaps we will glean some ideas that we can incorporate into web designs for our clients in the future.
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Mozy.com – Awesome concept. I’m going to check this one out further. This is a very user friendly, informative website offering a fantastic service for a low price. 2gigs of storage online for $4.95/month is a good deal! |
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StumbleUpon.com —This is a site I use myself currently. As a social media site, it allows you to tag and recommend sites to other people. It will also generate recommendations for you based upon your interests. It’s inherently user focused and a great way to promote sites or particular pages on a website. |
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Last.fm – Finally, your own customizable radio station on the web. Last.fm allows you to type in the name of your favorite artist and be listening to them in just a few seconds through your browser. As long as your browser stays open…the music keeps crankin’. To gain the full experience, you need to register with them which will allow you to further customize the system for your listening pleasure. It’s a great site full of features for their listeners. Their site has a nice clean look to it. Their logo is a simple, yet effective design too. |
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Weebly.com – This is one we won’t necessarily refer our customers to visit. This is a free website building tool. It gives people the ability to create websites and build blog platforms in a WYSIWYG style. There are templates, formats, designs, and functions here that might be helpful and useful to check out. |
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Etsy.com – Here’s a niche marketing website that’s a good example of putting The Long Tail philosophy into action. Etsy is dedicated to selling products that are handmade. This is an extremely popular site for artisans and crafters looking for a way to ply their wares globally. Its design is simple, easy to navigate and pleasing to the eye. It’s definitely an appealing website which justifies its position on this list. |
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Wotartist.com – Another niche site. Wotartist is dedicated to promoting abstract art from artists all over the world. It’s a beautifully designed site. All of the navigation for the site is reduced to one corner in order to free up space for displaying artwork on the main page. I like the design of this site a lot. This site is full of awesome artwork. This simple design let’s the artwork be the focus instead of the site. Awesome concept. |
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Fatsecret.com – This social networking site is dedicated to helping people drop unwanted weight. By capitalizing on a universal problem, this site has created a huge following by allowing people to discuss what works for them, swap recipes, and encourage each other to their goals. The site is completely geared towards interactivity and information. People can get really personal by sharing their journal entries, charting their weight and goals publicly on their member page. It’s a site that encourages people to step out, be bold and share their desire to lose weight. There are some good ideas that can be derived from its design and its ability to let users create charts and graphs to track their success. |
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Netvibes.com – This is a cool site. Netvibes puts everything you want from the web onto one very customizable page. Customizable modules allow the user to check email, display RSS or Atom feeds, display news sites, weather, and just about anything else you can think of. Netvibes is a prime example of Web 2.0. Everything about the site is focused on the user. It’s completely customizable allowing everyone the ability to create their own, unique home page for the Internet. There are many great tidbits here for designers. Great site! |
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Chow.com – A tasty website all about good food. This site covers food, recipes, food culture, and basically everything you can think of that involves food. It allows users to receive their content in multiple ways (audio, video, photos, blogs, podcasts, boards, etc.). It’s a “themed social networking site” that gives users the opportunity to interact with others revolving around a common subject…food. |
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OhDon’tForget.com – For all you text messagers out there, this is an easy way to keep your friends and contacts up to date with what’s happening in your life. Probably the neatest feature on here is the ability to schedule a time and date to have specific messages sent out to specific people. The site has some pretty cool features. Its scope is pretty narrow by only focusing on text messaging. But, the services it provides for users is excellent, which is why it’s a top ten finisher on this list! |
Each of these sites is unique and extremely focused on achieving a particular task or service. Every single one of them is full of user friendly features. The combination of focus, use-ability, and excellent design is what makes each of them successful in their particular niche. Each one of them has something to offer the web designer as well. Designers should take a look at each of these sites as prime examples of how to create websites that are beneficial to the end user.
