Designing a website, it not an easy task. Like any design, the blank page is the most frightening aspect. Then you’ve got to think of all the aspects beyond the aesthetics, the content, branding, usability, and functionality. You’ll probably be working within limits or with guidance from a client and you’ll have to meet the expectations and rise up against the global competition.
Luckily for you, there is a range of high-quality sites that specialize in web inspiration. You may want also to check out 15 Website Design Ideas to Try Now + Free Design Assets. Collating a huge variety of sites from designers around the world, that you can use to stimulate your creative juices. Here are 12 of the very best.
1. Behance
Behance is a social media platform owned by Adobe which aims “to showcase and discover creative work”. The Behance platform enables web designers and related professions to showcase their portfolios of visual work such as graphic design, fashion, illustration, photography, and more. It is free for members to use without upload limits and as such contains a huge amount of work, being the world’s largest site of this type.
If you want to find an inspiration site in a certain area the categorization filters will allow you to select by creative fields such as illustration, game design, crafts, or creative tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, or Fresco. Alternatively, there is a general search bar for typed requests, which can also be filtered by locations, color, or even schools. Behance allows you to follow artists and artist’s mood boards, plus there is a Featured Gallery of projects chosen by the curators.
Huge and easy to use. Truly inspirational.
2. Dribbble
Dribbble is one of the biggest players in this field with over 4 million visitors each month. A social networking platform for digital designers and creatives as well as a design portfolio platform if you are searching for inspiration. Well used by graphic designers, icon artists, illustrators, and web designers.
To find your inspiration you need to explore. Filter work by type e.g. web design, animation, branding, typography, etc, and further by open tag search, color, creation tools (Made with), or downloads. There is also a time frame filter so you can be sure your chosen category is right up to date and fashionable. Once you’ve found someone or something you like you can follow or find more or even hire them.
With nearly 4 million shots uploaded there just has to be the spark for you.
3. Muzli
Known as the designer’s secret source, although with over 100,000 users it’s hardly that, Muzli is a browser extension that instantly delivers relevant design stories and inspiration on a daily basis. It is a way to discover the best web design inspiration, best websites, best logos, web trends, best mobiles sites and applications, minimalist websites, innovative illustrations, design features, unique websites, photography projects, and visual art, as well as opinions and articles from design experts across the web.
By mining leading web sources like Dribbble, Behance, Designspiration, ffffound, Mashable, Techcrunch, and over 120 others, Muzli has automated curation, to uncover the best design inspiration and news that you won’t normally find with a web search. This is a great and growing source of ideas for designers and creative professionals will keep you at the cutting edge of design trends and constantly inspired.
Start exploring, by signing up and indulge yourself in the world of design.
4. SiteInspire
siteInspire is a showcase site for fine web and interactive design. Website sites are submitted (over 200 per day) and then chosen and curated by Howells Studio, looking mainly for simplicity and clean design rather than gimmicky, overly decorative sites.
You can browse nearly 8000 sites by style, type, subject, platform or open search. Each category is sub divided and you cans elect multiple categories to define your search. Visiting the selection will give you more information and similar sites.
Ideal for hand picked, clean, simple designs.
5. Awwwards
Awwwards is a professional web design and development competition body. The aim is to recognize and promote the best of innovative web design. It is a website competition that developers, agencies and designers can submit to. Sites are selected and chosen as site of the day, month etc leading to the final site of the year.
The search section has options to search these winning sites, or search other nominees via topic categories, tags, technologies used, colors or countries.
High quality inspirational content guaranteed.
6. Web Design Inspiration
Everyday, the site hand picks the best web design inspiration, carefully chosen among different styles and industries, from all over the world. Including the top editors picks.
Extensive category choice of web designs by; industry, style, type or color and filter tools within each category allow quick and easy navigation to your required area. You can then check out the design on desktop, tablet or mobile version or a mix.
A super hand picked selection.
7. CSS Nectar
CSS Nectar is a css awards website design showcase for web designers and developers
You can either browse through the nominees or previous winners, or through category, color, country or feature plus the sub categories. There is also a huge archive. The individual sites are rating in out of 10 for design, coding and creativity and then given an overall average.
Top quality selective designs, ideal for designer inspiration and also to glean what the judges like and don’t like.
8. Design Inspiration
Another well known design inspiration site with an enormous range and variety of sites and also other design fields such as Architecture, Art, typography and Photography.
Explore via the search bar or colors. the color search is particularly good opening up a full spectrum screen and allowing you to chose up to five colors and taking you to their combinations. Selecting a piece of work brings up a color palette, and selecting a color button will whiz you to a series of examples with he exact Hex number.
Neat and easy to use, especially good for color choices.
9. Best Website Gallery
The site name states it all, a site featuring other sites in a gallery form formerly known as MakeBetterWebsites. It’s a simple visual bookmark collection. that could be a source of inspiration for new projects or something else.
Search the selected designs via sites, links or filters; colors, CMS, Style and framework.
Ideal for pushing your creative buttons.
10. Admire The Web
A basic showcase site of the very best in website design for inspiration, it’s updated daily web design and responsive design sites focusing on minimal, clean and responsive websites.
You search through tags and then categories or tags.
11. Commerce Cream
Commerce Cream specializes in showcasing eCommerce site from Shopify. They collect, collate and highlight the most beautiful E-commerce experiences to help inspire designers, developers and merchants. There is also information on the agencies behind the sites and the designers themselves. Online stores are submitted and then go through a selection process.
You can search through design agencies or browse through features sites although there are no filters.
E-commerce specific inspiration.
12. Pttrns
Pttrns is a project of Robin Raszka and neatly categorizes screenshots of iOS including iPad, iPhone, Apple watches and Android device apps. The categories are listed according to a vast array of functions like logins, searches, custom tab bars, home, timeline etc.
Mobile device inspiration at its finest.
Final
A great selection of websites that group and collate sites from around the world to push you in the right direction. Great for designers or clients searching for the right look, feel and combinations. Specific searches to save time or general searches to inspire ideas, up to date designer driven, latest fashions and movements in a fast changing world. – it all helps you keep on top of your game.
Article by: Lyudmil Enchev (graphicmama.com)
