The new Google Ventures site is an interesting study in creating something rich and minimal. Rich in that there are a number of visual and interactive features that make the site interesting and extremely navigable. I’m not a huge fan of the side-based fly out navigation design that we’ve seen pulled over from iOS nav designs but on the GV site it’s done really well. First off on the home page you’re presented with a full view of the navigation and only when you go deeper into the site or are focused on content does the nav “fold up”. The rest of the site is well structured and content seems to flow well for you as you read through it. Love this site.

++for the ascii art too!