Sightings: One excellent site each day.

Previous Sightings
September, 2002

Bembo's Zoo
Great site to share with your children, but maybe not if you have a slow connection--this site is all about graphics and animation. I was really impressed with the "play" on type. (Sighted by Shelly Zivick)

Bumpercars
Excellent collection of images and flash animation snippets, with good mouseover work on the home page--though I must admit it took me a few minutes to discover the mouseovers. (Sighted by Martin Wall)

Emergence
Found this in passing, I didn't think much of it until I spotted that the flash was augmenting the associated text so well, then it's quite fun. (Sighted by Spaggie)

Kartoo
This is a visual search engine that uses a Flash UI. Kartoo's search results are not text-driven but operate more like an interactive map with keywords. While this type of site mapping is not new, this site has broken new ground, adding some UI features that make narrowing search results, for example, really easy. It can be confusing at first and it *is* rather slow, but it has great visual presentation and the menu drops are pretty nice, too. (Sighted by Lori Piquet)

120seconds
A Canadian site aimed at teens and young adults, 120seconds publishes art, multimedia, fiction, music, and just sort of odd philosophies for others to consume and comment upon. The navigation isn't incredibly intuitive but I like the way there's several layers of buttons always available on the screen so you can easily get back to where you were before or even jump into a deep page in another section. (Sighted by Lori Piquet)

Colecirillo.com
This is an unusually well done example of someone's personal "baby tribute" site. The developer has used various techniques for displaying images and allowing reader comments. The nav bar is interesting too. The best part is the photodisk page, which displays the slideshow as if from a Viewmaster (those toys from the 60s and 70s). There are some interesting ideas here. Although the functionality of the site varies, it is very user-friendly and you don't feel lost. (Sighted by Rachel Plut)

Will 4 Adventure
The thing that struck me about this site was its clean design and the ease of navigation throughout; I haven't seen such a 'polished' site in a long time! I am especially impressed with the fact that it is 'Flash' free and quick loading! (Sighted by Simon B.)

Kelly's XP Korner
This site from Kelly Theriot, MS-MVP, is a bare-bones-designed but efficiently organized site aimed at helping you troubleshoot any Windows XP issues that may crop up. Considering the depth of content, pages load surprisingly quickly, even at dial-up modem speeds--an asset for any home user. The site could offer a better way to navigate than always clicking the Back button to reach the main menu, but when it comes to needing help, design isn't as crucial as content, and having a working!) search engine is a real plus. (Sighted by Stefan Gruenwedel)

Elgoog (a real Google mirror site)
Benjamin Stein's site is a real "mirror" site for Google: everything appears backwards! Type in a search term, backwards, and read the real results, backwards. He began this site as a gag but it turns out that Chinese Web surfers visit it regularly because it's one of the few Western search engines that their government hasn't banned. (Sighted by Stefan Gruenwedel)

Recipe Nutrition
This is an all .NET site with heavy use of Web services and DHTML to deliver the first nutrition site on the Intenet that will give you nutrition for a recipe in real time. Login as 'guest', 'guest' and check out the ingredient page with cascading select boxes to help drill down for ingredients. (Sighted by Pat Capozzi)

RedSam
This is a fairly basic photography site, but the images are often stunning and the navigation is elegantly simple. (Sighted by Jim Riedel)

Huh?
A clever, anonymous, and well designed satire on the painful excesses of the era of the Internet bubble. (Sighted by Lori Piquet)

My Virtual Model
I like this site because you can actually shop for clothes on the internet and create a "model" who matches your build and "try on" clothes before you buy them. There are a lot of stores like where actually shop with your model, so this could be accepted as a internet shopping standard. (Sighted by Stefan Labuschagne)

Digital Web Magazine
This online magazine for professional Web designers consists of interesting and helpful articles, interviews, reviews, and tutorials that cover important issues such as CSS, usability, navigation, architecture, and so on. With nicely color-coded sections, easy navigation, and good code underneath it all, it's no wonder this site has become "the Web designer's online magazine of choice." Of recent note is the eye-opening article, "99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete." (Sighted by Stefan Gruenwedel)

The Official Saucer Website
Saucer is a a four-piece pop band out of Sacramento, CA. and this is their Website. Though I don't know why the 50's sci-fi theme is relevant (having never heard their particular brand of "dirt-pop"), I thought that the Website was pretty inventive and nicely streamlined. (Sighted by Erin Gannon)

The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
This site is pretty amazing for both content as well as the Insight Browser technology. (Sighted by David Stouse)

Julie's Tacky Treasures
A Web site devoted to one woman's preoccupation with bad taste, this site features her impressive collection of rare, ridiculous items. The navigation is easy, the content is well-organized, and the delivery is delightful. Enjoy! (Sighted by Erin Gannon)

eyenvision.com
eyeenvision.com is an animation site that is not out to change the world. Its purpose is clearly stated on the front door: to entertain. The content's organization is straightforward but creative and the movies are endearing. The tip jar is an especially nice touch. (Sighted by Carrie Sherrill and Erin Gannon)

NPR's Present at the Creation
Present at the Creation is a series of little multimedia editorial features that tell how some bit of Americana got started. They're nice because the text is all on one page, usefully illustrated, but with links to extra images and context for those who are interested in more detail. There's a nice navigation metaphor for changing to another story. I especially enjoyed the one on Scrabble. (Sighted by Lori Piquet)

Starbreeze.com
Starbreeze is a game development company and its Web site reflects its expertise in character development and immersive virtual interfaces. There's lots of nice screen captures from their games and I particularly like the way you can browse the game characters and read their various attributes. Their "fairy" Web agent is useful, even if is just slightly annoying. (Sighted by Lori Piquet)

Silicon Publishing
This developer resource site contains specifications, code, tips, and links to information about a number of technologies ranging from XML to SVG to databases to Web design. Although coverage in some areas is a little thin, the site is attractive, navigation is straightforward, and the site is worth exploring. (sighted by Russell Jones)