sugarenia.com

I’m busy these days – or rather, my mind is very busy these days.

Personal and day job projects fly around my mind and I’m always on the lookout for inspiration, especially as far as web application UI design is concerned. I often find myself staring at an every day object and trying to decipher its form in proper XHTML and CSS, what, hasn’t this ever happened to you?

Those are the places which I visit in order to get some steaming hot design inspiration:

• Every 37signals project I’m a member of, mainly Basecamp and Backpack. For me, they’re design paradigms, so simple and effective applications.
• Flickr. It’s where many designers I admire post bits and pieces of complete and unfinished work in form of screenshots, which I find really really inspiring. I’m currently loving the Wufoo photostream, but even the myriad screenshots by factoryjoe is fine.
• CSS Galleries, namely CSS Mania, which is the only gallery I pay a visit every now and then. Most of the times, the sites featured are too overdone or too fancy – but once in a while, I find something really good which I capture with Paparazzi! and keep in my “Design Inspiration” folder.
• A recent addition, UI-patterns.com. I was waiting for a site like this for months, it just gathers all common web design patterns and showcases them in a simple interface with lots of examples. A great reference site, thanks George.

One thing I’ve realised from my trips around the Web is this: I don’t like too fancy sites. Well, I like them, but I don’t find them inspiring. Simple, effective stuff, that’s inspiration for me.

web design, inspiration, 37signals, flickr, css mania, ui-patterns