slick photography site made with flash....

This site is very professional in its appearance. The navigation through the photos in the various galleries is extremely smooth ...no choppy movements ....nice and smooth and controllable...The site opens with a short b/w video of the photographer (i presume) in a taking photos....which sets the scene very well.....accompanying drum soundtrack also sets the tone.The images are high resolution and galleries include actors, models etc. The site contains his portfolio and a list of his clients (impressive) contact info etc.

Beautiful site ....minimalistic and it exudes quality

http://www.paulsmithphotography.com/

plank design.....memorable name

This is a Canadian site that is on a mission that believes that 'sites need to be about results, usefulness userfriedliness and good aesthetics ....they want to produce websites that make a difference.
This company has some high profile clients including Michael Moore of "bowling for columbine" fame as well as some festivals. The website is very well laid out, the navigation is very easy as well a readability.
The choice of name is for the site is intriguing ...how one associates design and a plank? thick as a plank, flat as a plank ...
There are some interesting blogs on the site and i was impressed by their work on the Fantasia Festival site.

Below is an interesting clip from one of the blogs on the site regarding where to put content on your pages

Our friends at Webmonkey, one of the pre-eminent resources for web developers, have published the results of a study done by CXPartners, a U.K.-based design agency, that completely debunks the above the fold myth. Using sophisticated eye-tracking software, the study demonstrated that users always look at the browser's scroll bar to check if they should
scroll. And they do scroll. And an interesting fact emerges - the less you put above the fold, the better off you will be, as it will encouorage users to scroll down and check out all of your content.
www.plankdesign.com

random ....I typed in Iconic Website and got this

typed in the words "iconic website" and came up with the above. A domain that has been registered for the past 12 years or so.....perhaps something to do with the 2012 olympics or something completely different ....this was something that used to happen quite a bit when big companies started to create their web presence only to find that their companies name had already been registered ....and in many cases they had to buy back their own name....cyber squatting i thin it was called.

reading down through the text on the site ....the current owners are engaged in some sort of marine life work..... dolphins....

did some more surfing and found out that 2012 is the end of the Mayan calendar ....apocalaypse end of world etc suspicons......

sometimes its good to go random ......keeps you from getting into a rut.....

http://www.2012rising.com/

tucows ...shareware and freeware ....

Tucows is a site that specialises in freeware, shareware etc. It has a good reputation for having quality stuff and has recieved high praise over the past years.

it is very well laid out ...bright, good use of color for differentiation and very good search area.

This is a good resource to know about when you need to find something that you need to enhance your computer without having to buy some large packaged software. I recently had reason to use it when i was looking for a very simple dvd/cd burner because the one on my pc had too many bells and whistles on it.

Also worth a visit occasionally to see what is going on in sharware/freeware....might save you a few euro.

http://www.tucows.com/

web and street advertising

this site hmv is really well put together and has the advantage that it has a lot of shops around the towns and cities.....when browsing for whats new and planning a trip into the city to pick up what you want and then a browse around ....beats just clicking on the screen for a lot of people.

The color is eyecatching and the inclusion of black holds it stable.....lots of stuff to browse...loads very quickly and prices are well displayed and easy to see....of course the way music is marketed and distributed now has been revolutionised by mp3s and variations and the whole digitization of media has led to an absolute avalanche of reissues etc it is being handled very well (in terms of organization and searchability and availability ) in this shop.

www.hmv.com

promoting cooking oil....

This site is promoting cotton seed oil through a tour as a highly suitable ingredient and one of the ways it is doing it this is by suggesting a roadmap through the growing areas with culinary attractions highlighted along the way. I think this is a pretty good attempt to raise awareness of the product to a larger group of people using the web.

The site is highly visual ...front page loads with a map dropping down and a couple of clickable pictures buttons....probably flash powered... there is a very 'down home ' athmosphere about the site (similar to the miller site i reviewed earlier' , the choice of images is well in tune with the message, lots going on but no feeling of cluter.

Information is available on the site regarding history and latest innovations and news though not rammed down the visitors throat ....and this is a good poing. This is a very appealing site with quality layout and is professional in its presentation

http://www.cottonseedoiltour.com/

credibility on the web

buying medicine on the web is flourishing and the numbers of people logging on to look for medical advice and info is enormous. this raises issues of credibilty and security( financial details) to the mix of a web site . in the above example the site is "speedy health" the colors are brash and the layout is quite amateur and the name is a poor choice.....this leads me to question the authenticity of the acutal business and authenticity of the drug brands they are advertising .... to me it sends out all the wrong signals for a website that deals in such product....

www.speedyhealth.com