Weekly Design Source - February 1st 2008
This week’s focus is about web design directories. It could be a directory of designer’s website or website design. Website designers from all over the world creating a lot of request from their clients in regular basis. Most of the design are just “given away” without proper acknowledgment from the public. That’s why in recent trends, web designers submit their websites to web directories to gain more network by sharing portfolios. This method would also help designers in finding inspiration from other designer’s work. In some cases, it will be the source of motivation for achieving high standard in web designs.
Web Creme
I found this directory when I was having an internship during my college times. The layout is so simple. This directory list the websites in timely basis. Each site is given a 460 x 210 pixels of website’s snapshot from an angle that captures the website’s logo. Visitors can also sort the websites directory from their color tag, representing the colors that each website’s uses. Webcreme also provides a page for their monthly archive. IMHO, the standard of this directory is quite high. With no additional advertisements other than three banners at the top and a google adsense, this directory maintains it’s simplicity and clarity of a directory.
Because of it’s simplicity, visitors can expect some light loading time and fast navigation. However, due to the simplicity of the directory database, visitors can only browse on time and color basis. Each page only consist of 10 website snapshots, which will make the older sites will get drowned every time there is new website entry. There are no comments, visitor’s feedback, or opinion regarding the webmaster’s websites of choice. Thus who need a quick browse is recommended to see this site directory.
Oriental Gallery
A brand new website design directory in 2007, oriental gallery has its own focus on website design. Like their taglines, this site list all the websites with oriental touch that you’ve never seen before and I do admit that in compare to other website design directories. I don’t know if Indonesia is included to their oriental standards because their database only includes Japan, Korea and China for this moment. The list of websites that they presented, IMO, are unique in the term of presentation. Mostly those sites are presented with creative and phenomenal flash animation. Each site is categorized by region, business type, and ratings at a scale of 5.
The sites updates on timely basis. The latest site is placed at the top of each page and consist of 6 sites per page. The snapshots are provided in two version, one snapshot consist of the website as it is visible in internet browsers, while the other consist of cropped website with 100% resolution. From this feature, visitors can be more informed in visual way. Other things that this site provides other than directory is some articles related to website design.
A little bit plus value is that visitors can give ratings with the AJAX rating system without registering to the site. This is a breakthrough in functionality however it may gives each site uncomfortable ratings for no reason. For oriental websites, this is the regional standard for website design uniqueness.
Design Snack
A comprehensive and complicated site directory system is well presented in Design Snack. This site directory system consist commenting, submitting, member registration, ratings, and categorizing. The additional points is their award and approving system. Each site is categorized based on their business type. Every submission is well tracked and approved by either member of the sites or the webmasters. Each member can give positive, negative and neutral comments which also affect the rating of the site. Any site which is stand out among others is given the opportunity to join their regular awarding system.
The site provides advertising opportunities without any requirements for relating to website design. A 60 x 60 pixels banner (or should I say icon) is one of the space they provide for advertisements.
Another trivia facts from this directory is the listing of website’s bandwidth requirements. The site categorized each entry with the hi and lo bandwidth symbol. Alerting the visitors before further browsing the site. This feature is quite useful in case that the visitor has a limited bandwidth subscription for their internet access. For most viewers in Indonesia, this is a must provided information.
This directory is recommended for heavy browsing and comprehensive listings of website design.
Tags: Design, DesignSnack, Directory, Oriental-gallery, Resource, WebCreme, Website, website directory