Amazing Sites 7 – Web 2.0 Sites that Don’t Look It

Since I first started this series, the goal has been to showcase websites that did not feature the design conventions that have stereotypically accompanied web 2.0 sites. Since the beginning there have been some comments stating that web 2.0 is about the interactivity between users. I have always been aware of this however the goal was not to feature sites that necessarily were 2.0 but ones that did not “catch the trend.” That being said, I also have been challenged by some of the readers to find web 2.0 sites that do feature some amazing design.

When you are focusing on putting together an amazing book to land a great job, you will take any advice you can find. However, have you ever stopped to think about where that advice was coming from? Not all professionals are created equally, and the advice of some is not as valuable as that of others. I never really saw this as an issue when I was a student, until I witness first hand a situation that left me utterly disgusted.

Chances are that if you do web design in a smaller company or as a freelancer that you have had a project that required outside help in order to fulfill the client’s needs. Web design is an interesting field. Projects can range from mostly aesthetic to almost entirely mathematical. This wide range of demands that a project can take on means that being an expert in all facets of web design is impossible and you will eventually have to look outside your direct resources for expertise other than your own. This is where outsourcing naturally comes in, but at what cost?

I hate tag clouds, there were obviously must have been created by a programmer (no offense). The default offering completely lack any sort of hierarchy or organization. While increasing the size of the tags does convey which tags are the most popular, it certainly is not the most elegant or clean solution. Up until a couple of weeks ago I had no solution other than to remove the tag cloud, or just give a simple list of tags which is more of a copout than a solution. That was until now, or before I conceived the idea for the tag grid, which I will share with you in a step-by-step how to.