Nothing but fun tonight, I’m having one of those days where I just can’t think about Search
I’ve stumbled across some brilliant web sites recently and want to share them as excellent examples of creative navigation, engaging experience, and effective design.
The first on my list, perhaps not surprisingly, comes from well-known marketing agency Leo Burnett. The renowned creative group is responsible for much of the best of what you’ve seen from Kellogg’s, Visa, and Hallmark and they’ve designed an online experience dependent on the pencil. You can draw all over the site while using the pencil as your pointer to click on menu options that hover over the page. Categories of content are seamlessly integrated with the page so your pencil simply draws you in to view more detail, returning to the “homepage” with nothing more than another click.
From what might potentially prove a valuable recommendation to your business to a complete waste of time, I’m moving to Screen Vader, a site that appears to be the work of a designer or artist. Limited information leaves you guessing as to the author but the content is no less intriguing. The menu of options exists on a three-dimensional, transparent ball which moves and rotates around the page as you move your mouse. Mouse over pop-ups help you maintain control as visual cues of where to stop the mouse to listen to the artists music or interact with visual applications best seen rather than explained.
Finally a more practical application not far from my previous post about TheFind and their color search technology. Commerce technology Etsy (they host small business and individual stores selling original goods like apparel and jewelry) truly allows people to browse products as easily as turning the pages of a catalog (and that’s a bad analogy because these features are not like turning the pages of a catalog!). Etsy : Color is a playful color selector which when clicked finds products available that match that color; a stack of photos are returned leaving the user to then sift through them to find one that catches them. Find something interesting? Click the photo and it opens like a postcard, still strewn across your table, with details about the product.
Etsy : Time Machine appears on the screen like you are traveling through a swirling vortex of photos, moving at the pace of new products being added to the experience. Grab a photo as it passes or reach forward in time for product details for the product shown. Throw the photos around to move them aside and out of your view to see more or simply wait for the Time Machine to pass them by.
Think outside the box to create this kind of buzz and you’ll naturally attract an audience to interact with your brand.
Have you found other great designs? Let me know.
Check this one out, you navigate with a virtual magnifying glass which zooms in or reveals content not seen without the glass.
[…] With direct access to the brilliance of Denuo, the tactical work of ZenithOptimedia, the pencils of Leo Burnett, and the strategic direction and implementation available through Performics, you’ve got one […]