I came across simplesquare.com (a web design and development company that also does some video work) while browsing on standoutawards.com. Needless to say, it really stood out. The entire site is done using Flash, and its fairly obvious once you start navigating. The navigation is from left to right in a horizontal orientation. For example, in the first set of links, "portfolio" is one of the options. Click on it and many of the names of the projects Simplesquare has worked on lists themselves to the right of the portfolio bar, and in a downwards succession. Click on one of the projects and a box pops up, once again to the right, telling about that particular project. The best part is the way the navigation appears and presents itself... its hard to describe, but thats what the above link is for. Also, all of the projects are color coded telling whether its a design and development, motion, or design project. The site is complete with interactive sound upon mouse over and up/down. Its done tastefully and is not an annoyance. There is also ambient futuristic background music which loops and can be turned off or on.
I like this site because it looks very flashy (no pun intended), but has incredibly intuitive and simple navigation. Too often I find web designers sites which focus more on incredible visuals and crazy new navigation ideas, which most of the time don't work so well. Here's an example: 0-style.com. Obviously the designer(s) spent a good amount of time creating this site, but its navigation in my opinion is ridiculous and jumbled. It took me a good minute to really figure out how it all worked, and by web usability standards, thats pretty bad.
As far as I know Simplesquare.com has no brand new ideas. There are sites out there that have far more impressive Flash incorporated into there sites. But I think Simplesquare stands out because of how well they structured there site and made it very usable, but at the same time nice to look at.
In conclusion, Simplesquare is an awesome site because:
A. It has great navigation, which is easy to understand and use.
B. Considering the amount of Flash involved, it has a relatively quick load time... No hiccups.
and
C. It looks great. Its clean, has good use of color, solid graphics, etc.
I like this site because it looks very flashy (no pun intended), but has incredibly intuitive and simple navigation. Too often I find web designers sites which focus more on incredible visuals and crazy new navigation ideas, which most of the time don't work so well. Here's an example: 0-style.com. Obviously the designer(s) spent a good amount of time creating this site, but its navigation in my opinion is ridiculous and jumbled. It took me a good minute to really figure out how it all worked, and by web usability standards, thats pretty bad.
As far as I know Simplesquare.com has no brand new ideas. There are sites out there that have far more impressive Flash incorporated into there sites. But I think Simplesquare stands out because of how well they structured there site and made it very usable, but at the same time nice to look at.
In conclusion, Simplesquare is an awesome site because:
A. It has great navigation, which is easy to understand and use.
B. Considering the amount of Flash involved, it has a relatively quick load time... No hiccups.
and
C. It looks great. Its clean, has good use of color, solid graphics, etc.
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