What's a good way to come up with a style for my web application?

March 14, 2010 1:54 AM

So, basically, I've designed a web application, and it looks okay. It's not yet good enough for a public release: I want to make it look world-class before unleashing it on the world. In order to do that, I would like to peruse web app after web app, looking at various colour styles, layout tricks, etc. that other people have used and gathering ideas for my own web app. I wonder if anyone knows of say, a large online repository of screen shots of 100s of web apps, that I could flip through?

I was also thinking of using StumbleUpon for inspiration. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like a clunky way of going about things: if you find a web app, you then have to create an account, sign in etc.

Perhaps looking on Hacker News where people often promote their web app...

In general, however, if anyone has any good ideas/resources on how to come up with a good look and feel for a web app, I'd be interested to hear.

posted by tomargue to Technology (10 answers total)

Best answer: Wordpress themes maybe. There's lots you can randomly go through when creating a blog, for inspiration purposes. Pick-out a few, then ask people you know whether they like the layout or not.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 4:29 AM on March 14, 2010

I was going to mention Hacker News, but your question beat me to it ;) However, maybe you could ask this actual question on HN? Looks like the subject might have been broached already, but possibly not the exact question you ask. (Try browsing these search results as well.)
posted by BrokenEnglish at 5:35 AM on March 14, 2010

Google CSS Gallery.

Loads and loads. drawar is a newer one.

Also check out pattern tap
posted by backwards guitar at 5:49 AM on March 14, 2010

Best answer: Sorry, this is what I get for posting on my iPhone:

drawar

and

patterntap
posted by backwards guitar at 5:51 AM on March 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Awesome-o. Yeah, I'll check these out in the morning. Thanks guys
posted by tomargue at 5:55 AM on March 14, 2010

CSSZenGarden
TemplateKingdom
TemplateMonster
posted by elle.jeezy at 7:48 AM on March 14, 2010

Theresa Niel has a presentation on SlideShare that contains numerous screenshots from RIA applications. Check out RIA Screen Layouts.
posted by centerweight at 10:28 AM on March 14, 2010

Response by poster: Yeah, pattern tap is exactly what I need, thanks backwards guitar.

Haven't checked out the others yet, thanks
posted by tomargue at 2:05 AM on March 15, 2010

If you're going to be working on or maintaining this project for some time, or think you might make more in the future, it might be worth your while to learn a bit about usability and user-experience for online interactions. For example:

UX Booth's blog: interaction design and usability
UX Mag article on Rich internet application screen design (the resources at the end are pretty good too).
posted by harriet vane at 4:55 AM on March 15, 2010

Oops, forgot to mention that this won't help much with the colours and style part of your question, but will help a lot with the layout tricks you need.
posted by harriet vane at 4:57 AM on March 15, 2010