We all spend an inordinate amount of time on the web reading and watching until our eyes are sore and it's something-o'clock in the morning. So what do people regard as good looking/well functioning sites? I ask this as I'm forever tweaking my own site to be as aesthetically pleasing on the eye yet as easy to use from the reader's side of things, and would love to hear some of your thoughts.

Personally I find sites such as IGN, who have a silly number of huge graphics and less-than simple pages for actually reading content, to be most annoying. Waiting for the plain white background to load I find really off putting (though this may simply be something my browser does wrong), not to mention the poor actual-content-to-other-stuff ratio.

 

On the other end of the spectrum I was genuinely pleased to use Giant Bomb when they launched properly. The way it's set up, and the way it's all so easy to use is just great. To bring it back onto the bloggier side of things, the BitMob/Kotaku style of simple blog format also agrees with me. Though on the part of Kotaku, perhaps it's a bit too simple.

Anyway, what do you all think are good looking/enjoyable to use sites and why (apart from Gameleon obviously, that one goes without saying)?

 

 

It seems self-serving to do this, but I'm going to offer up my own site, http://www.the-nextlevel.com/, as an example. Honestly, I barely ever go to any other gaming sites besides Gamespot, Gamefaqs, and IGN, but I know that I get a lot of compliments on TNL for being a good-looking site that is also very distinct aesthetically. I think that even if I didn't run the site, I would post it as an answer to your question. You be the judge.

One of my more recent discovery on the net is instructables. It's nothing really videogame related but it's one hell of a well designed site. Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others.

You always wanted to make a PC of your NES? Here's how to do it.

Out of all the sites I've visited and written for, www.thunderboltgames.com still looks the best.

A good example of a simple, straight forward blog style site. To really stand out, I think you need some out of the ordinary approach on what your site is doing, like what BitMob is doing for example.

thatvideogameblog.com has a pretty slick layout. As does the outlet I currently write for; thestartscreen.com.

thunderblotgames is incredibly simple, while the-nextlevel takes a simple blog and makes it look great.

I think simplicity works well though. I'd much rather read something like Thunderbolt than something that is infested with adverts that are forever changing.

Though I frequently visit IGN.com, I really dislike its layout. In fact, for several years I avoided IGN at all costs just because of its ridiculous layout. Siliconera,Giant Bomb, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun all have great layouts.

I totally agree! The layout of IGN is really a peace of... 

From a former web designer perspective, what aspects of IGN did you not like and why? Same goes for the other sites. Hearing a why or what you would change gives an insight into what would make sites better.