Sightings: One excellent site each day.

Previous Sightings
February, 2002

Dead Hero Creations
Shawn Lein's Dead Hero Creations portfolio site uses some old-school comic illustrations to good effect. Site launches into a smaller window that's remarkably well contained. His portfolio explains how he redesigned various sites, which could be quite instructive. (Sighted by Stefan Gruenwedel)

SitePoint
This site is an "integrated network of information resource sites aimed at serving the broader needs of Internet users by offering a central location for everything pertaining to building, profiting and promoting a Web site." It really is chock full of information, vibrant discussion groups, and the like. Plus its simple design and easy navigation make it fun (and fast) to browse through. (Sighted by Stefan Gruenwedel)

No More Popup Ads
Rick Schrager's personal site features this nifty list of opt-out links, "because pop-up ads suck." These links take you directly to the "opt out" feature of the ad server listed, including such favorites as Doubleclick, Advertising.com, X10.com, and 24/7 Media. Clever, ain't it? We think so too. (Sighted by Stefan Gruenwedel)

Sliding Puzzle
Soulman Software created a Flash interpretation of the classic logic puzzle. Click on the squares to arrange them in the proper order. Even better, upload your own JPEG to the site and send the puzzle to friends. Now that's cool! Even better, it actually works as promised. (Sighted by Stefan Gruenwedel)

MAGIA Internet Studio
If you needed to present your users with a lot of information, take a look at how MAGIA Internet Studio handles its text-rich site. Each page is a comprehensive collection of facts and links under a central graphic, but it manages to keep the user's eyes from glazing over from information overload. (Sighted by Glen Kunene)

The Utah Carol Web site
The Utah Carol Web site is juicy with beautiful typography, dreamy photography, as well as two animated films created in Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Flash by Eun-Ha Paek of the Milky Elephant Collaborative (http://www.milkyelephant.com) and QuickTime videos shot by the band. (Sighted by JinJa Davis)

FRUIT New Media
This is a really fun site to navigate. The designers at FRUIT New Media use clever animation and sound effects to bring their fruit theme to life. Every page opens with the apple, orange, banana, pear, lemon, and lime characters going through a slapstick episode. (Sighted by Glen Kunene)

Mini USA
If you've never thought about buying a Mini Cooper, you might consider it after seeing their Web site. Mini USA has put together a great site--innovative text effects, rich graphics, great product photography. The 3D Engineer's View page alone is worth going to the site. (Sighted by Glen Kunene)

Matthews Studio
A site doesn't need all the bells and whistles of Flash or Shockwave to be compelling. With a simple, clean design--in which the designer left much of the screen as static background--matthewsstudio.com uses great photographs of its product to grab the user's attention. (Sighted by Glen Kunene)

The History of Valentine's Day
This special section of the History Channel's Web site is well done. Simple and elegant--with inspiring, but not overly mushy, profiles of three famous families. (Sighted by Carrie Sherrill)

theSpark.com
Home of the ever-popular "Purity Test" (and now, the "Lazy Test"!), the folks at theSpark.com say that their mission is "to integrate large-scale thinking and small-scale personnel (dwarves) to achieve "shrink-to-fit" results on the Internet." This is nonsense. And they're good at it. My absolute favorite feature on this site is "The Date-My-Sister Project." A Sparker's sister visits from out of town, and he conspires to set her up while secretly broadcasting her dating game exploits on the site. It's classic, and really well told. (Sighted by Erin Gannon)

New York City Ballet
This site for dance lovers has everything...ballet schedules, history of the ballet, even ballet inspired crossword puzzles and games. The scrolling information boxes are sometimes a little clunky, but overall this was a very interesting amalgamation of info for a site on so classical a topic. (Sighted by Carrie Sherrill)

Today In Science History
Memorializes births and deaths of famous, and not so famous, scientists of the past, and other events in science history. Searchable and browsable with a cool calendar. (Sighted by Carrie Sherrill)

Deconstructing Flash
This is a site that actually practices what it preaches. It's a slick demo site for a new book on Flash programming, built, as you might imagine, in Flash. (Sighted by Lori Piquet)

Guggenheim
Log into this site using the Broadband button, then go look at the online exhibit called "The Art of the Motorcycle." Guaranteed to knock you out, whether or not you like motorcycles. (Sighted by Russell Jones and Lori Piquet)

Broadmoor Reservations
Want to glimpse what it will be like to book a hotel or vacation in the future? This site lets you pick your dates, the type of room, and enter your payment info in one interface. No clicking to and fro. (Sighted by Russell Jones and Lori Piquet)

MakeAShorterLink
Matthew Hunt and others have created a terribly nifty site whose sole purpose is to convert very long URLs into much shorter ones that you can easily share with others. If you're tired of e-mail programs lopping off long URL strings you send to friends, give this site a try. It's so cool, you have to wonder why no one else tried this before, and why sites don't offer this service as a matter of course. It's a lot faster than a "Mail This Article" system. (Sighted by Stefan Gruenwedel)

Virtual Jamestown
Here is Virtual Jamestown, a site for students that uses Flash to illustrate the voyages of John Smith and a 360 degree panorama of the Jamestown colony and fort, to complement many pages of maps, images, court records, labor contracts, public records, newspapers and personal letters of the 17th century American colony at Jamestown, Virginia. (Sighted by Mac McCarthy)

Balthaser:Fx
Balthaser:Fx is an impressive example of how to use Flash to explain--no, to *dramatize*--your product offering. Balthaser:Fx is a Web development suite that operates entirely online, and the opening animation makes that vividly clear in about three minutes. It's not enough to have design tools and artistic sensibilities: You have to know how to use them. These folks do. (Sighted by Mac McCarthy)

Stewart Creek Golf
This has some fairly nice photography and rollover effects on the front page but click on the View the Course button and run through the holes one by one. Once you get over the granite mountain tops overlooking neat-as-a-pin fairways, you might notice that this is fairly exquisite visual data presentation. (Sighted by Lori Piquet)