Web Wonderland

Looking for inspiration for your next client? 

Has your muse left town? 

OK, well just to help you out a bit, SAHM (stay at home mum) and web aficionado Kate Blackham has been gawping through the archives of featured sites at the Macromedia Showcase, Cool Homepages and Wow Web Designs to pick out a handful of her favourite things.  

These aren't for the CSS only peeps – Kate can't wait to get her Flash, Shockwave and QuickTime plug-ins whirring and loves to allow pop-ups given half a chance.

Web Wonderland

Looking for inspiration for your next client?

Has your muse left town?

OK, well just to help you out a bit, SAHM (stay at home mum) and web aficionado Kate Blackham has been gawping through the archives of featured sites at the Macromedia Showcase, Cool Homepages and Wow Web Designs to pick out a handful of her favourite things.

These aren't for the CSS only peeps – Kate can't wait to get her Flash, Shockwave and QuickTime plug-ins whirring and loves to allow pop-ups given half a chance.

Words

Starting with, what could have been a rather dry site, the new media department of the Peabody Essex Museum set to work with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and Flash MX when putting up online information about their Nathaniel Hawthorne Bicentennial Exhibition. Making good use of the Zoomify extension, they've built an interactive feature that enables visitors to view original handwritten documents from Hawthorne's childhood. By adding a touch of audio the designers have added both atmosphere and a little accessibility.

Children's author of the decade, and all round driver of literacy, J. K. Rowling has a very nice looking official site. To get the full effect you'll have to enable pop-ups and then keep the rest of the family away from the site as you hunt through it. Visually attractive (unless you're on the text only site), the lack of obvious navigation spurs you to explore and discover – entirely in keeping with the book series. Sift through the author's untidy desk, which she claims to have tidied up specially. Read through her diary (biography) and newspapers (news and rumours), or use the magical key, paperclips and coffee mug to access links to fansites, FAQs and extra stuff. This site was developed by the Lightmaker Group using Macromedia Flash, Dreamweaver and Coldfusion and has been a very deserving winner of Macromedia Showcase's Site of the Day.

So you don't want obvious navigation, but you're not quite prepared to let your visitors explore a la Rowling? Well have a look at RedOctober Industrie – a site with a vintage jeans feel. The novel site navigation is provided via a set of concentric rotating dials and a swirling western star courtesy of Macromedia Flash. Now that's inventive, idiosyncratic maybe, but thought provoking.

Polls

Got an opinion, share it at the Opinion exchange! Developed by SGS Net with Macromedia Authorware, ColdFusion, Contribute, Dreamweaver, and Flash this site should inspire another 'build a dynamic data driven website' book.

Images

A Site of the Week from Cool HomePages is the Botto site from Illusio Design. The 60's retro/comic feel complements the curvaceous furniture perfectly. Simple but stunning! The Botto website is a "work in progress" and Illusio Design will be adding a shopping cart and more interactivity, so watch this space. 'Nuff said.

Number 1 in this month's Top 25 at Wow Web Designs is Ryan Terry's personal portfolio site. Combines excellent Flash animation of multi-colored aliens visiting a busy American street-corner with links to other personal sites. Tools used include Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash. Any site that involves aliens watching a laundrette just has to be worth a visit.

Kate Blackham

Former Wrox Technical Editor, now Mum to Noah (6 months).

See All Postings From Kate Blackham >>