Examples of cool web design: April 15, 2002 issue of New Thinking

April 15, 2002 New Thinking:
Examples of cool web design

Website content management

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April 15, 2002

Examples of cool web design

By Gerry McGovern

An essential focus of web design is the effective communication of text-based content. Web design that is truly 'cool' seeks to organize and communicate information in innovative and useful ways. Quality web design is concerned with getting the right content to the right person at the right time and at the right cost.

Almost three out of ten people who buy online purchase from Amazon. The Amazon website is a study in web cool. It has a simple, three column layout that is packed full of useful content. The 1-Click Purchase option is, of course, amazingly cool. The fact that you can read reviews from real readers is now old hat but still cool. Links to books and authors related to the book/author you are considering buying is certainly cool.

Google is the king of web minimalist cool. A Google webpage downloads fast; the essence of Web cool. If you make a spelling mistake, Google will suggest the correct spelling -- so cool. On a particular search, Google will place links at the top of the results to latest news stories relating to what you have searched for. That is cool.

Yahoo was always cool because it focused from day one on providing a select directory of the best websites. Yahoo spent a lot of time working on classification, and classification is amongst the coolest work you can do on the Web.

What's very cool about Yahoo is that even though is has grown hugely in content and services over the years, its basic classification and layout have remained the same. The average person thinks its pretty cool when a website they have got used to doesn't change.

CNN is a cool website. It's full of content that is written for the Web. CNN knows that people scan-read on the Web. To facilitate this scan-reading, CNN keeps headings, summaries, sentences, paragraphs and articles short, punchy and packed full of information. That's cool.

Another cool trick that CNN uses is when you select the print page option for an article. Often, when you print out an article you want to find that article again on the Web. To do this you require the URL of the page you've printed. Most web print facilities don't publish the URL on the page, but CNN does. Pretty cool.

Computers.com is a truly cool website. It's really well organized. The designers have done an excellent job on classification. For example, if you're interested in buying a notebook computer, you're offered the following classifications: Budget notebooks; Desktop-replacements; Mainstream notebooks; Thin-and-light notebooks; Ultraportable notebooks.

From a price point of view you can search for notebooks: $1,000 and under; $1,250 and under; $1,500 and under; $1,750 and under. There's also latest deals information. There's an 'Editors' Top 5' in each classification. The content is top class. It's sharply written and packed with facts and it's never afraid to state its opinion. Definitely cool.

The Web can be such a cool place. Watching a webpage download quickly is such a cool treat. Finding a website that's packed full of all the information you need to make a decision is the ultimate in cool. You see, the Web is reinventing the meaning of cool.

Gerry McGovern

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The Web can be such a cool place. Watching a webpage download quickly is such a cool treat.

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