.NET magazine have announced the ten best websites of 2011 in their annual .net awards.
So here’s my some what cynical web designers review of this years results.. Enjoy.
1 http://www.auris-hybrid.de/ it’s flash!? It doesn’t even get a replacement image or alternate site for viewing on iPad or non flash platforms.. just a nice standard flash error. They must be pulling our preverbal leg with this one? Let’s carry on..
2 http://activatedrinks.com/ another flash site? Seriously? At least this time there is still content & no error but its just colours and facebook likes? Again the CSS has not been tested on iPad as a nice White strip resides down the right hand side due to some obscure padding or wrapper alignment at a guess.
3 http://2011.beercamp.com/ wow the first in the list that works on all platforms.. we are getting somewhere. The idea for the usage of css3 animation is a great concept will give them that! Other than the cool functionality though its not really a work of art, just overuse of a barely readable font.
4 http://www.harveynichols.com/ now were getting somewhere.. a site that works on all platforms, looks slick, pulls off the art of making something complex simpler and user friendly. Top work pod1
5 http://www.nikebetterworld.com/ not really a website is it.. it’s a video. Hats off to the movie editors but this would have took the web designer all of 5 minutes.
6 http://sophiehardach.com/ if your going to develop a really cool css3 html5 animation to flow through pages then it might be an idea to test the technology developed for all platforms.. on those platforms! The menu drops down to 2 levels on iPad due to font replacements and padding. Also the set margins make the site unreadable.. both common issues we have found on a lot of sites we have developed, a small quick fix is needed.
7 http://spacelog.org/ great layout, usability and all round website. Could of done with a touch more css3 animation where the large top images lay static on some pages but other than that a good site.
8 http://thedolectures.co.uk/ this is nice. Not awe inspiring.. but nice.
9 http://www.torontostandard.com/ it looks like a standard news blog template, somewhat similar to The Times website.. give the award to them.
10 http://unionstationdenver.com/ this is great, even has built in development for iPad and touch screen platforms with swipe notifications. Usability may cause the layman to get a tad lost but a real nice concept and works!
