50 Inspiring Web Application and Service Web Site Designs

September 2, 2009 - 49 Comments
Design Style Series,Inspiration,Web Apps

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Spending months and months building an effective and useful web application or service is only half the battle that any developer must face. It might be potentially the most powerful and useful app ever created, but will users like it? Will they understand how to use it? And most importantly, will they come back and use it again? These are the three questions developers must ask themselves before they launch any app.

Apps and services are about having simplified features, finding the easiest possible method for users to interact, understand and eventually love the app. Not only do the features have to be simple they have to emphasize the sites purpose and allow users to quickly achieve basic tasks.

If we look at some of the biggest names in web apps and services and ask the question, what do they have in common? Have a look at Google Search, Twitter, Delicious ot to a lesser extent Flickr, and ask the questions, how did they become so popular? What distinguishes them from there competitors? The answer is simplicity. They are all memorable because they are easy to use, learn and understand and of course, they are backed up by a powerful tool as well. When you arrive at each site the function that they perform is clearly defined, they use basic navigation that everyone can understand and you can very quickly perform tasks.

There is no winning design formula to a popular web app or service, just guidelines. Nor is there a typical design style for you to follow, as this post unintentionally proves. What we have done is showcased 50 of the best designed web app and service web sites, broken down into the following categories: Clean, Simple and Nice Designs, Minimal and Effective, Vector and Large Background, Corporate and Professional, Modern and Typical (Web 2.0ish), Stylish and Classic, Graphically Improved and Flash, Flex and AIR Designs.

Previous parts of the Top 50 Web Design Styles Series

50 Examples of Large Photography Backgrounds within Web Design »
50 Examples of Creative 404 – Page Not Found Pages »
A Showcase of 50 Amazing Personal Blog Web Designs »
50 Creative Examples of Illustrations in Web Design »
50 Professional Web Design Agency Web Sites »
50 Bright and Vibrant Web Designs – Color Inspiration »
50 Impressive Magazine and Newspaper Styled Web Designs »
50 Inspirational and Fresh Minimally Designed Web Sites »
50 Creative and Inspirational Personal Portfolio Websites »
50 Inspiring Web Application and Service Web Site Designs »
50 Examples of Effective Uses of Typography Within Web Design »
50 Beautifully Crafted Corporate Ecommerce Web Designs »
50 Creative Examples of Vintage and Retro in Web Design »

Clean, Simple and Nice Designs

Image Spark

robo.to

Tumblr

PhotoSnack

YOKABOO

Verb

Server Density

WebMynd

Twitter

The Invoice Machine

Big Cartel

Grapevine

Minimal and Effective

Google

Minify Me

Flickr

Delicious

ColorSuckr

TASCK

ImgLot

Pictaculous

Vector and Large Background

StrawPoll

FriendOrFollow

TwitterFone

Everlater

Bet Your Followers

MiLK – The Mobile Learning Kit

Corporate and Professional

WordPress.com

crowdSPRING

Wellper – Collaborative Pricing

Amazee – Connect. Collaborate. Change.

Vyew – FREE Anytime Collaboration

Last.fm

Behance Network

Modern and Typical (Web 2.0ish)

Screenr

Print Friendly

Cork’d

Vimeo

Jing

Friends Call Me

Blogger

Plinky

SHOWN’D

Stylish and Classic Layouts

Typechart

Dialogix

Cobblestone Community Network

Graphically Improved Designs

Carbonmade

Wufoo

AppBoy

OCR Terminal

BabelWith.Me

Gambolio.com

Autodesk Project Dragonfly

Flash, Flex and AIR Design

uvLayer

Used cars : Volkswagen UK

Psykopaint

PDF Creator

“The most common way to get usability wrong is to listen to what users say rather than actually watching what they do.“

Jakob Nielsen, The King of Usabilty.

When developing your web app remember this: Users hate waiting, learning, repeating, non-standard navigation and really hate overlong and overblown pointless sigup forms. How about that for a simplifed guideline?

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View more from the web design styles series

50 Professional Web Design Agency Web Sites »
50 Bright and Vibrant Web Designs – Color Inspiration »
50 Impressive Magazine and Newspaper Styled Web Designs »
50 Inspirational and Fresh Minimally Designed Web Sites »
50 Creative and Inspirational Personal Portfolio Websites »
50 Inspiring Web Application and Service Web Site Designs »
50 Examples of Effective Uses of Typography Within Web Design »

22 Comments › Leave yours

Smashing Themes
4 Sep, 2009
What a fantastic and yummy list. Thanks for sharing.
Reply
sezer
4 Sep, 2009
god thank you
Reply
webmasterdubai
5 Sep, 2009
really good post got lots of inspiring stuff for all sites
Reply
Zábavná videa
5 Sep, 2009
Inspired list. Thanks
Reply
Amber Weinberg
6 Sep, 2009
Love the minimalism. I’m actually working on a new portfolio design myself that takes out a lot of clutter from the current site. Good to see this is a popular trend right now. LOL It’s a good break from the clients that want to you to squeeze as much stuff as possible into every pixel of space ;)
Reply
Designrfix
6 Sep, 2009
very useful list thanks :)
Reply
Benjamin Reid
7 Sep, 2009
Nice list but you missed the best one, Ballpark! http://www.getballpark.com/
Reply
Carl Smart
7 Sep, 2009
cool list. Thanks
Reply
Grapevine
7 Sep, 2009
Neat!
What a lovely comment on our new site. I wonder what you think of our AIR app (image/link on the front page). Though I guess that’d be a bit much having two entries in 50 ;)
Cheers
Grapevine
Reply
Gambolio
8 Sep, 2009
Thanks so much for featuring http://gambolio.com
We really appreciate it!
Reply
koji @ ebook cover software
16 Sep, 2009
WOW this is huge! thank you very much for your post! love your lists!
Koji
ebook cover software |ecover software
Reply
Bill Labus
12 Oct, 2009
You forgot one: http://www.5byfive.net
:D
Reply
John B
12 Oct, 2009
awesome list. Thanks
Reply
nazuka
12 Oct, 2009
thanks you, very inspired…
Reply
Luke Lux
13 Oct, 2009
It’s a great post, so inspirational.
Thanks to share it!
Reply
designfollow
7 Nov, 2009
great collection
thanks
Reply
Purse17
8 Nov, 2009
Great article, found many useful web apps. Thank you!
Reply
Nick Wichman
16 Dec, 2009
This list is pretty great. I think there could definitely be some bigger corporate brands that have good design, but overall this is awesome!
Thanks!
@nickwichman
Reply
Fixticks
28 Dec, 2009
Amazing, i also like this one, it would be a a good addition to the amazing list…
http://www.bulamu.net/
.
wow. nice list.
Reply
myBiz.lk
27 Mar, 2010
An awesome collection!
love it
Reply
Raz
9 May, 2010
Thanks, just what I was looking for
Reply
Gary Bastoky
16 Aug, 2010
Even though these examples are supposed to be web applications, as opposed to web sites, I don’t see anything here that represents a complex application such as the web-based console for Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 or some other similar app. The represented sites are all public, and none display complex interactions that one would find in a desktop app.
I think the definition of “Web App” needs to be refined. I still think of the examples shown here as “sites” not “applications.” Does someone have a definition for what a web application is, as opposed to a site?
Reply