24Ever

24Ever

I have to admit that when Jeff Gordon came into the sport of NASCAR, I wasn't a big fan (I was an Earnhardt fan) - but I've grown to like Wonder Boy and the Rainbow Warriors over the years. This tribute site to his 24+ year career is pretty sweet - love the use of the...

Vox Media 2015 YIR

Vox Media 2015 YIR

Cool year in review site from Vox Media out of DC. The split screen, with copy and stats on the left, and representative (fun) illustrations on the right work well. I imagine for other YIR pages for other companies, this is more of a sum up - but I see the pure...

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy

Love this site from The Nature Conservancy out of Arlington, Virginia. It's their "global" sub-domain, slightly separate from their main site - I kind of hope they change the main site to this format. There's a lot here - but three things I like specifically: - Love...

Firebelly

Firebelly

Really dig this site from Firebelly out of Chicago - especially for the hamburger boxes off the About page. They've made a strong decision to emphasize their work (see the home page is the Work page), and allow you to filter the work from the off-screen nav (to not...

Cocoon

Cocoon

I like the simplicity of this site by Cocoon out of the UK - I kind of like that they don't do images until later in the page. Then they keep it clean past that. The project detail pages are nice too - images can be large, and don't know how quickly they come through...

Aloha Buggies

Aloha Buggies

This is a fun site from Aloha Buggies in Hawaii - great artwork throughout. I wish the mobile version was the same as the desktop - but I'm glad there is a mobile version. Working with a travel company for their site, we know organizing all of this - plus the...

Alce Agencia Digital

Alce Agencia Digital

This is a cool agency site out of Santiago, Chile from Alce. Love the coloring - I wish it scrolled a little slower so you could see the work done on the parallax. Other than that - pretty decent. From the Designer: Agencia digital en Santiago Chile. Diseño de paginas...

The Practical Man

The Practical Man

Cool shopping site out of Australia for The Practical Man. We've seen a couple of sites like this, that has that letterpress, old time order pad patterning - but we haven't really seen it with a shopping site. The product category and brand pages are pretty sweet when...

Frank Chimero

Frank Chimero

I happened to be listening to Beastie Boys while writing this review - shout out to Brooklyn - where Frank Chimero is from. New Year - new Frank portfolio site. It's clean and crisp, minimal, and is featuring his writing. The Library page is a cool idea - and the...

Radar 125

Radar 125

On a side note since this is the last UMS Post of the year - thanks all for a great 2015! See you next year! Each week, we do a round up of curated "stuff from the interwebs" that we call Radar. In this week's 125th Radar: Copying Text From Images to Your Clipboard...

Passage Kinos Leipzig

Passage Kinos Leipzig

Here's a clean and interesting way to display movie times for a theater / cinema in Leipzig Germany. It has some moving pieces, but the site is designed simply enough to get to whatever info you need. From the Designer: Clean and mobil optimized Page for the...

Geeky Works

Geeky Works

Quick good one-pager from Geeky Works out of India. I like how they try to make it a little interactive with entering your name - and it types out a personalized greeting. From the Designer: We recently redesigned our Website and would love to get some feedback from...

Lu Yu

Lu Yu

This is a good, quick portfolio for graphic designer, Lu Yu, out of Istanbul. It looks like it was built on Semplice - but it also looks like Yu works with Semplice. I like the off-set sections of the home page, and how the project names are attached to the images,...

Shellshock Inc.

Shellshock Inc.

Good design work out of Rhode Island from Shellshock. Really like the look of the hamburger drawer nav, like the rest of the site, is very clean and easy to navigate. From the Designer: We're a design + digital agency based in Providence, Rhode Island. After a major...

Rush Flyer Printing

Rush Flyer Printing

We've done some work for some printing companies (both 2 and 3d) in the past year, and know how hard it can be to merge the design side of a client facing website, with the functionality of an ordering web app. This site from Rush Flyer Printing out of NYC, is a good...

Radar 124

Radar 124

Each week, we do a round up of curated "stuff from the interwebs" that we call Radar. In this week's 124th Radar: The Value of a Digital Project Manager A 2015 DPM Summit Recap The Life of ¶: The History of the Paragraph How can we build a better web experience? By...

Travel Web Design Agency

Travel Web Design Agency

I'll admit - it took me a minute to get into this website, The Travel Web Design Agency, by WebbedFeetUK. I like movement on sites, but I wasn't sure if this was too much all at once on-scroll - plus, it's very SEO'd - so that deterred me - since we get a lot.. a...

Rocco Law

Rocco Law

We've seen and built hundreds of law sites - so always interested to see other's takes lawyer sites. This one for Rocco Law out of Philadelphia, built by Blinebury Design - is very good. It's the small things that get me - besides the compact color scheme, with good...

NewDealDesign

NewDealDesign

Good stuff from NewDealDesign out of San Francisco. The site's cool and vibrant - their work is freaking awesome. From the Designer: Matchmaking people, culture and technology, we build joyful physical and digital experiences for innovators big and small. Strategic...

Ostmodern

Ostmodern

We're not Arsenal fans here at the house, but I still like the work of Ostmodern (even their Arsenal site) out of London. Clean and bright, and not overbearing. From the Designer: Hard for me not to be biased as we designed and built this site! Ostmodern are a 60...

Snipcart

Snipcart

Decent site from Snipcart out of Quebec - one thing I like is the mega-dropdown in the nav - keeps the site cleaner. Also like the line illustrations on each page (and in the nav) - cool. From the Designer: Complete marketing website for Snipcart, a developer-first...

vin.li

vin.li

I want one. Cool site from Vinli that allows wifi and apps for your car - I like the movement and quick svg line drawings to give a cool, but light feel to the site. And, um, I want one.

Radar #123

Radar #123

Each week, we do a round up of curated "stuff from the interwebs" that we call Radar. In this week's 123rd Radar: 8 Killer eBooks on UX Design That You Can Get For Free UX design is something very close to our hearts at UsabilityTools, so we’ve scoured the web for you...

Eighty East

Eighty East

Good looking real estate site for Eighty East out of Melbourne, Australia - done by Yoke. I actually like the Chinese version a little better - the characters fit in with the aesthetic of the site even better in that version. Twitter: @welcometoyoke Role: Designer &...

MOLAMIL

MOLAMIL

Fun, fun, fun. I like this site from Molamil out of Denmark - even if the wack-a-mole heads of the employees are a little creepy... Great transitions into other pages - and fun vibe all the way through! Submitted by: Joakim Norman Twitter: @molamil Role: Designer...

Frank Underwood 2016

Frank Underwood 2016

We don't review political websites normally - And - maybe I'm a little politically jaded, but he's the only candidate that I've seen that's actually honest with his intent. If you don't immediately recognize this as a reference to NetFlix's House of Cards - I can't...

Format

Format

You know, I have heard a lot of belly-aching from designers about pre-designed website platforms like Format (not specifically them, but others). My question to them has always been, "listen, is that website meeting the customer's needs? Yes? Then what's wrong with...

Beattie Bailey

Beattie Bailey

I think we would have replaced our wedding planner with Beattie Bailey (out of London), just based on their website. Love the framing of the site, the movement (from top to bottom, and in the logo), and the nav (how it starts in the footer, and moves up on scroll to...

Ramotion

Ramotion

Good, clean design from Ramotion out of San Francisco. Very work-centered, and just enough color and animation to make the first three work samples pop.

Si le Soleil

Si le Soleil

Pretty crazy site design. I love the animated interactions and imagery and stuff. It's also pretty rad that they were able to keep it pretty much intact on smaller mobile screen widths too. Check out that nav design too, pretty intense but super rewarding on desktop.