Looking for inspiration for your next site redesign? Traditionally we've pushed customers to look at the Webby Award site or at the competition for initial inspiration. Now a new mine of ideas has launched at CommandShift3.
The self proclaimed “Hot or Not for Websites” offers access to some of the hottest designs on the internet. Easy search allows you to find great sites in your industry, or just browse to gain some general ideas.
These sites can generate great ideas on color palette, shapes, layout, imagery, and key information to include. Though you never want to copy anything, looking at other sites and pointing to specific pieces you like can be a huge help to your design team. You'll often find in these initial stages that you missed a key section for your business or that you need a different way to present your information.
A word of caution on looking at other sites, particularly on CommandShift3. The prettiest sites aren't necessarily the best. Just because they are gorgeous to look at doesn't mean they'll sell more widgets, attract more readers, or achieve any of your site goals. There's nothing pretty about Yahoo or Digg, yet they stand at the top of site traffic.
Determine your site goals and then marry good information architecture, site usability, and design together is what really produces results. But it never hurts to look at some pretty websites for design inspiration.
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