Great Ideas from Other Apps
While scouting around the internet in my search for concise web copy I also found some nice layout features - devices to help your readers either get to your info or help them understand your app better.
I thought I’d share these with you as they’re better off on the page rather than stuck in my head. So here goes…
The BNA Web App Oscars.
Cute Navigation
The prize for cute navigation goes to Skype for their very useable site map that appears at the bottom of each page. It’s a simple device and an old one at that but doesn’t it work well? With so much documentation on one site the map really is a Godsend. Skype site map
Best Sign-up Page
Shutterfly may not be everyone’s favourite Flickr imitation but they do sport a tidy sign-up screen. The design is a bit rainbow and too happy-go-family for my taste but the sign-up page really works. It’s simple without being childishly big, and there’s enough information there to convince you to sign-up without overloading your with data. The images tell the story which is normally the quickest route to get information across - they say ’see this picture of people having fun, this is you, and all you need to do is print your pictures and you can capture this moment forever.’ Heck they had me sold! Shutterfly sign-up
Dealing with a Split Audience Well
These people have a very daring application - a web app for the financial industry - yikes! They have the problem that their user base comes from two very different backgrounds (lenders and borrowers). It’s a problem that Amigo has to overcome too (if indeed it is a problem). I think they deal with it well, the split screen idea works very well and their icons draw you to the right area straight away. Ambitious but it works. Zopa split screen
Lightning Fast Info
BlinkSale’s ‘Learn’ section is the fastest in the West. They just use big pictures of the app in action with very little explanation. I was surprised to see how quickly I understood the app, considering it’s fairly complex. The screenshots were genius. Be warned though, you can really only get away with this if your interface is super-easy to use and well sign-posted. Blinksale’s ‘Learn’ section
Best Overall Communication
This prize goes to Skype. Now I know that some people will argue that Flickr is an overall top performer too - and I agree - but someone has to win! Skype just has it all for me, The whole site is very short, sharp and to the point which makes me feel like there really is nothing to this ‘free telephony thing’ (right or wrong). While the winning feature has got to be the animation on the home page. Any animation that still makes sense in Korean really does deserve to win. Skype’s animation
If you’ve got your own nominations, add them in!
Mind ya, the Skype animation site is in Chinese, not Korean.
Comment by Boaz — May 11, 2006 @ 2:26 pm
Now this is more useful. Thanks :)
Comment by Fred F — May 11, 2006 @ 2:33 pm
Big minus for Shutterfly because they wouldn’t let me inside the site at all. They block Flock on a Mac apparently…
Comment by frebro — May 11, 2006 @ 5:28 pm
Nice round up Gill.
I just wanted to point out the Skype animation is not written in Korean. I may be wrong, but I believe it’s Chinese (traditional).
Comment by Dan — May 11, 2006 @ 6:18 pm
With Rails beeing so populare why LAMP?
Comment by Cris — May 11, 2006 @ 8:27 pm
because RAILs sucks. I’m not a LAMP advocate, but I’m certainly not a Rails advocate either. Stop the trend. Wear a button.
Comment by Andrew — May 11, 2006 @ 10:18 pm
We chose to go with LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) because that’s what we’re familiar with. Well written PHP is absolutely fine. Rails is great, but we didn’t want to take the extra time to move platforms.
Comment by Ryan Carson — May 12, 2006 @ 8:38 am
Damn it - you’re right it’s not Korean. This is http://www.skype.com/intl/ko/ (I think) but they’ve gone and changed the animation for this one!
Does this mean I should strip them of their award?
Comment by Gillian Carson — May 12, 2006 @ 9:08 am
Yeah, that’s the Korean version.
Although if it was in Korean it would definetely add to the cool factor, I think the Chinese version deserves its own award as well. :)
Comment by Dan — May 12, 2006 @ 6:53 pm
“Shutterfly may not be everyone’s favourite Flickr imitation but…”
So how is it that Shutterfly is an imitation of Flickr when Shutterfly has been around since 1999 and Flickr only appeared on the scene in 2004? ;-)
Comment by Richard Davies — May 12, 2006 @ 7:44 pm
I didn’t realise they were that old. Although looking at the timeline they only started to enable sharing of photos in 2006, before that they were all about printing your digital photos.
But hang on - printing digital images in 1999! Talk about being brilliant before your time. Could anyone actually afford digital cameras back then?
In anycase, I still like their sign-in page :)
Comment by Gillian Carson — May 15, 2006 @ 8:54 am
The caption is written in traditional Chinese. The film projector is asking the question whether or not should the film be played again.
Very clean and well designed website.
Comment by Matthew Mansfield — May 20, 2006 @ 3:27 am
Skype website and navigation get thumbs-up from Carson Systems…
The folks at Carson Systems are busy building a new web application and blogging the whole process. The took a look at what’s out there and gave the Skype website thumbs-up in two of the five categories. Gee. Thanks, guys…….
Trackback by Skype Blogs — May 22, 2006 @ 4:03 pm
Thanks for all the kind words. We keep remaking the site. The intro movies are available in a number of languages depending on which language site you’re visiting.
Comment by Jaanus — May 22, 2006 @ 4:03 pm
This may not count as a signup screen, but Bubbleshare lets you create and share photos without signing up at all. Very easy!
http://bubbleshare.com
Comment by topfunky — May 24, 2006 @ 1:47 am
Great Ideas from Other Apps…
There is really no question that some some Web apps have better designs than others. I’d say this piece below does a fairly decent job at pointing this out………
Trackback by Lockergnome's Web Developers — May 25, 2006 @ 5:03 am
Dave…
Interesting topic… I’m working in this industry myself and I don’t agree about this in 100%, but I added your page to my bookmarks and hope to see more interesting articles in the future…
Trackback by Web Page Backgrounds — August 27, 2006 @ 12:02 am
Shutterfly supported sharing since I think 2000 (1999? I forget) - the timeline just refers to Studio, a desktop app that extends sharing to the desktop.
Disclaimer: I work for Shutterfly
Comment by Tim — September 19, 2006 @ 5:29 am
well i am very happy with this skype pragaram
Comment by gordonroy — September 20, 2006 @ 8:15 am
I nominate the www.dropsend.com page, :-) I think it looks cool, clear and very easy to understand.
Comment by area rugs — December 17, 2006 @ 10:39 pm
I agree, dropsend is very good as well. Still not sure which one is best though……
Comment by Bob — December 22, 2006 @ 8:06 am
It is a good idea to have OSCARS for web design. But is there any 3W official awards yet ?
I came across this site recently and like it for its speed, friendly and easy nature.
http://www.firebox.com/
Comment by valley — December 24, 2006 @ 7:05 pm
Have used skype, not sure what program is better.
Comment by Randall Wall — December 26, 2006 @ 11:27 pm
for web applications i would pick skype too.. but hey everyone has their own opinion :)
there is none better commercial
Comment by forum — January 18, 2007 @ 9:29 pm