Most Innovative Web Site Designs Of All Time: Inspiration And Ideas From Elite Designers (PHOTOS)

The Web can be a repetitive and boring place. Many Web sites look the same or are created based on the same basic principles.

Fortunately, that's not true of all sites. Some ingenious designers have created dazzling displays and breathtaking layouts, many with ample opportunities for interactivity.

Innovative and creative Web site designs are refreshing on the eye, and frankly, can get people excited. We've compiled some of our favorites and put them all in one place.

We need YOUR help picking the top five designs and discovering any innovative Web designs we may have overlooked.

 

Share your favorites sites with innovative designs

We're sure to miss some great sites. Submit your favorites here.

Time Machine

Navigating this site by Sensi Soft brings you to one of several scenes in time (complete with music and sound effects), based on the section: London 1880, Moscow 1920, Chicago 1940, Paris 1970 (pictured above), Barcelona 2008, and Tokyo 2030.

See for yourself.

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Comments

[kimber1]

10:25 AM on 01/19/2010

These are my guys: http://x-dimension.net

[pexho3]

09:57 AM on 12/30/2009

Moscow 1920 - you say? Then what is the Lenin's Mausoleum - built in 1926 and finished in 1930 - doing there (the right side, by the Kremlin wall)?

[elfNW]

08:37 AM on 12/30/2009

My favorite is “Out at Night” web site.

Honorable mention to the HBO web site, except it takes far too long to download. First the initial download takes so long, and then that’s just the beginning.

The “Time Machine” web site is also very good, though paradoxically it displays a lack of imagination in the Tokyo page. Tokyo 2030 looks pretty much like Tokyo 2010. Come on guys, it's time to give free range to imagination. I’m thinking maybe something like Blade Runner?

The built for YouTube web site? Let me just say I don’t get why it is so highly rated here, or is even on this list. I'll leave it at that.

[betthefarm]

07:55 AM on 12/30/2009

Nice sites to visit once, but after that, I'm like, let's move this along. As much as I like Time Machine, and I do like it a lot, that spin around thingy made me dizzy. Many are hard to navigate. Hated Out At Night, really liked the You Tube site, but kinda violent. The HBO one is fun, like a game. I agree with others, I'd like to see some sites w/o the Flash.

[lovestoread]

07:21 AM on 12/30/2009

http://www.vagabondstory.com

[Roland Gross]

04:33 AM on 12/30/2009

I like it - we did this kinds of interaction designs in the middle of the 90's - for CD-ROM! Further this cases shows that Joson Laird's model of mental models does work, either in the web or in offline media.

[Solo500]

12:20 AM on 12/30/2009

Miranda July's site for her book. The best, Jerry, the best. http://bit.ly/9oMJW The Jonathan Richman of websites.

[shthar]

11:30 PM on 12/29/2009

I like boring, it doesn't crash my browser.

[Johnay]

08:22 PM on 12/29/2009

I hate when sites use "virtual" whatever metaphors for their navigation. It only serves to get in the way.

[Kaila]

07:04 PM on 12/29/2009

I think J.K. Rowling's personal website should have been on this list. It starts with a view of her desk and leads you all around her office. There is a room of requirement that only opens on special occasions and certain interactive puzzles that reveal special information (like her own personal sketches of the characters as she sees them and rough drafts of the story that she didn't use). She had a game of hangman set up in the room of requirement which would reveal the title to her last book.

This is truly the most amazing website I've ever seen

http://www.jkrowling.com/

[danusgram]

06:50 PM on 12/29/2009

Oh boy I sure as heck need some of this code for my project

[vesaversa1]

06:21 PM on 12/29/2009

They left out HP

[Phattee]

06:05 PM on 12/29/2009

It's much harder to design something nice when you've got a mountain of restrictions and about 12 people offering conflicting opinions.

[fleaba]

05:46 PM on 12/29/2009

That HBO website is really fun. I haven't finished it yet, but I would love to have access to these types of puzzles/mysteries. I know it's a promo for them, but it is above and beyond anything I have seen on the web.

[btchakir]

05:32 PM on 12/29/2009

First one I looked at was full of typos... since when does good design have to be illiterate?
Under The LobsterScope

[Readbetweentheelevens]

08:32 PM on 12/29/2009

The code is hard enough. They have to worry about spelling as well?

[HalfBakedSushi]

09:11 AM on 12/30/2009

Indeed so. Employ some technical writers to proof the content. Good spelling / grammar = credibility.