International Herald Tribune Online, http://www.iht.com, makes nice use of the technology without being overzealous for technologie's sake. DHTML and CSS render deep site content in a technically savvy, but highly usable way. still cool after more than two years old. I'm usually not a fan of burying primary nav in a menu but it works well here as the menu stays open v. closing the minute you mouse off of the region and browser sniffing code throws nav into the left column on browser's that won't support the layering; The clippings feature leverages user tendencies to scan and return to key content; The view article features (lower right on story pages) via CSS allow users to on-the-fly resize text, re-layout text in a column, wide format, multi-column format; Not crazy abotu the promo going on in the left column (tho being commercial they gotta make money somehow), however, good overall cleanliness of design, use of white space, iconographic treatments and information hiearchy.

Posted by: Dean on March 19, 2003 10:29 AM

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I still like Bluefly.com. Big pictures, big icons, browse by all sorts of categories and filters, and fast.

People always talk about usable, but in the end, if the site is slow, it doesn't really matter.

Posted by: Joshua Fruhlinger on March 19, 2003 11:29 AM

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www.smh.com.au is one of the best news site out there, in my opinion.

Posted by: JB on March 19, 2003 11:48 AM

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I would have to way webword.com and trodo.com . There simple, elegant and functionnal design are realy great. If I had to bring a web site on a deserted island, it would have to be those two.

Ok, now, when do I get my free stuff???

Posted by: Richard Lehoux on March 19, 2003 12:44 PM

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I like eBay.com - they take an extremely complex procedure and make it very simple for the average user. Despite already having a bold color scheme for their corporate colors, they manage to make clear information areas in all their page layouts, too. They have a sensible approach to adding new features and functionality, and don't go overboard.

I have heard some complaints that for high-volume dealers and buyers it can be a little tedious, but I can't speak to that because I haven't done a whole lot of either buying or selling, just enough to get a good feel for it.

Then there is, of course, Google. I like that you aren't bombarded with information when you go there, and that they have tabs for other functions.

Posted by: Lydia on March 19, 2003 05:13 PM

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I can't think of any. There are 4 or 5 sites I use regularly, and they all have design quirks which annoy me. From this, I conclude that hardly anybody really knows how to design a commercial site well. Perhaps I've just been reading Webword too long.

Posted by: Alan Fisher on March 21, 2003 03:47 AM

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Some that come to mind quickly are:

www.paypal.com
www.theage.com.au
news.google.com
www.usabilitynews.com
www.afl.com.au - Australian Rules Football

my Yahoo - nice component features and consistent user experience independant of device.

Posted by: daniel szuc on March 21, 2003 10:02 AM

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