Primary Health – a private healthcare company based in London

I would expect someone seeking private healthcare online would be looking for a site that contained excellent detail on what services and facilities were available as well as comprehensive details on payment.

They may not mind taking some time to do this and would be more likely to spend time looking around a site in its entirety than in many cases, as they would consider it an important investment for themselves and their family. Contact with other patients would be useful in helping to make people feel they are making a sound choice.

They would also require it to be expertly built and maintained with a clean and professional, yet reassuring and not impersonal look. Engendering trust in the potential client would be of the upmost importance.

https://www.bupa.co.uk – I think this site creates the right feeling. They use the classic blue colour often associated with medicine to convey a sense of calm reassurance, but use a more unique images of people than some healthcare sites. The photos focus on family and on life rather than on hospitals or illness. There is a very clear call to action with the ‘get a quote’ button positioned above the fold and features such as apps and health assessment quizzes and calculators.

http://www.spirehealthcare.com/ – Again a use of clean looking white, but this time with a slightly more unusual green. This site contains a lot of information, which whilst sacrificing simplicity, can reassure a user on the level of expertise, and help them to find out more about a particular issue that is relevant to them. Even using the website purely to find information may well lead on to them making a purchase on a future occasion. The search bar is important to help navigate through a site of this size, and it has the facility to search for particular consultants or facilities in your local area.

http://www.lexmed.com – I thought it might be interesting to look at some American sites as there is so much more private healthcare there. I don’t especially like the overall look of this site but I think the focus on positivity and life is interesting e.g. details and images of sporting events and a newborn baby galley.

http://www.londonbridgehospital.com – Very clearly laid out, with a virtual tour of the hospital and a prominent phone number, which makes it easy to contact and speak to someone for those who don’t like or are unfamiliar with looking around a website.

Beech Farm – a homely bed and breakfast in Cornwall

Surprising how many B&B’s official websites let them down in terms of design – despite being beautifully furnished within.

Many locations undersold themselves with very amateur and outdated looking design whilst others looked too busy, with information scattered throughout crowded pages which would make searching a tedious job and would not exactly inspire relaxing holiday feelings.

I think the most important things to aim for in a design for a B&B site are firstly a good quantity of images of the interior and exterior of the property. Secondly, easy to find specific information that may be of relevance to customers not wishing to read all known history of the property and so on. Room rates, availability, contact details and directions are all essential. Thirdly, a personal touch you might not get with a hotel – a personable style of writing and information about local culture and events.

Points to further convince might be prominent featuring of awards and customer testimonials. Some sites I looked at also had Trip Advisor reviews and rating embedded on the page, which would be helpful as it appears to be an endorsement from an external source. Online booking services seemed rare but would definitely be an advantage.

http://www.rosevidneymanor.co.uk – The nicest looking site I saw. Fresh looking layout, easy to navigate, lots of nice images of the accommodation and area, and very informative whilst remaining concise.

http://www.hsdown.go-plus.net – Perhaps not the most professionally produced site, but I think the colour palette, images and style of writing give it a very personable friendly feel.

http://www.redboscastle.com – Simple to browse through and availability and prices are listed alongside specific rooms which could be useful.

http://www.ennys.co.uk – Calm and airy – a good feeling to inspire in someone seeking to book a relaxing holiday by the open sea.

The Dead Sea Squirrels – an upcoming indie rock band from Sheffield

I think the most important things to concentrate on for an upcoming band would be on the one hand to promote them to those who know little about them, whilst also providing interesting content to existing fans to build up their following. Style-wise I would say that the look ought to compliment the bands sound (which could be variable within this genre) and show their creativity.

Many of the sites I looked at for established bands I found unhelpful as they seemed to focus on driving sales of the latest album on the homepage, which may not be relevant if the band themselves is not yet well known enough. I also felt some of them looked a little too slick for an emerging indie band – I think the spirit of the genre lends itself more to a slightly DIY aesthetic.  Having said that, many sites take this a little too literally and are styled in such a way as to reference music zines with a rough collage look featuring cut out text and so on. I wouldn’t pick this for a new band as whilst zines were once the way for young people involved in a music scene to be creative and communicate with one another, people now share video, sound and images online and with social networking sites. Merely referencing the attitude with this zine look is therefore somewhat kitsch and not new and raw enough.

http://www.batforlashes.com – attractive, creative looking site, just on the right side of the zine style, and with enough content for a fan to spend a while on.

http://grizzly-bear.net – Another good looking site with interesting scrolling and varied layouts as well as a lot of music and video content (which people will find free online themselves these days anyway).

http://www.pixiesmusic.com – They’re not exactly up-comers but the Pixies site features loads of interesting content features such as apps, downloads of live shows, and an archive for fans to add images, videos and tweets to an online gig archive. Purchasing tickets is really emphasised and easy to do on this site, which is important now in terms of how bands are making money.

http://olofarnalds.com – This site could be improved a lot, but I quite like the simplicity and lo-fi look as well as the way the video plays as soon as you go to the homepage – it made me stop and watch anyway, which would be good news for a band trying to get more exposure.

http://www.adem.tv/site – A simple but creative feel with a focus on direct communication from the artist which could be good in terms of attracting involvement from potential fans.

1. http://www.mulberry.com

You would expect a designer fashion label to have a great looking site as image and branding are integral to the product, but this site also has a quality of navigation superior to many other similar sites I have looked at.

I’m a big fan of websites that can be contained (or seemingly contained) within one frame, since I like to feel I know where I am within a site. Constant downward scrolling and clicking through pages often annoys me when shopping online. This site does not need to showcase the quantity of goods some sites do, however I think there is a surprising amount on here, and enough videos, interviews and images to make it interesting and to add to the brands glamour.

There are many ways to view the items e.g. as part of the latest collection, by type, by outfit, appearing as clickable icons beneath the catwalk video, or as suggestions for complimentary pieces. The only issue might be slightly long loading times for some items, however the customised loading graphic even takes the edge of this and adds to the entirely resolved feeling.

I think the overall effect is extremely calm and relaxing and probably very purchase-inducing should you actually be able to afford any of these extremely expensive things!

2. www.ted.com

A website aiming to share quality information worldwide for free.

Ted conferences feature talks of 18min or shorter of professionals working in the fields of technology, entertainment and design amongst others. The website brings this to a huge online audience and provides many ways in which people can interact and further distribute its content.

The design looks simple but organises a sizeable quantity of data well. Links to pages about attending and organising events etc. are clearly visible at the top of the page for those looking for them, but are kept separate from the main body video content. Therefore the site is not complicated or crowded and people are encouraged to look around.

The short length of the videos and the many ways in which they are related allows you to see the connections between the themes in a way you might not experience through a medium other than the Internet. This is nicely illustrated with the design of the homepage where variable sizes of clickable images of (frequently changing) talks are featured in an organic looking cluster.

Many options for finding talks are available including topic choice, style choice (e.g. informative, surprising), newsletter alert, speaker choice, date choice, a search box and suggestions related to what you have just chosen. Translations into other languages are available and there is the option to request a specific translation from a volunteer for any language not currently there.

It also offers many methods for users to further share and discuss the information with code to imbed the video, or to email it, and links to share it via many social networking site options. There is also a forum for discussion, and comments threads -with generally more valuable contributions than often found throughout the web!

3. http://grandpeople.no

A site showcasing the portfolio of a Norwegian multi-disciplinary design studio.

This website stunningly displays a large quantity of design work and looks very modern and up to date.

The navigation and structure appears largely invisible, being kept to black text constant at the left hand side of the screen. Images of the work are scrolled through with a movable arrow, which gives a more dynamic, less structured feel. Each image covers the whole of the background with varying composition and use of space.

For some websites this sort of display could be sacrificing usability and loading time in the name of aesthetics but I think for this site it is entirely appropriate as it showcases their work in an excellent light and will appeal to other design professionals.

1. Astiankuivauskaappi – A Finnish Dish Drying Rack

I’ve broken two glasses this week attempting an over-ambitious washing-up tower so this would have been very useful to me.

Instead of using up space stacking clean dishes beside your sink, you just put them straight into the cupboard, which has a rack for shelves and no bottom. The cupboard is positioned over the sink so any water drips will be caught.

It was developed in the Finnish Association for Work Efficiency around 1944-45 by Maiju Gebhard and is the standard design used in Finland where I first saw it (and was so delighted by it I actually took a photo of the inside of my friends’ cupboard).

David talked about good design being invisible last week, and I’m sure I wouldn’t be so impressed by this if every house in the UK had one, yet it is such a brilliant, simple design. It seems hard to believe it is rarely seen anywhere outside Finland.

2) Dimming light switch

A dimming light switch is great as it allows you to control the environment of your room for optimal function and mood.

This particular one is in the home I grew up in, and although I have never seen one like it, I think this is a nice design for these reasons:

•    Although it is a little unusual, its function is obvious from the way the shape and colour of the fitting mirrors a usual switch.
•    The rotating circle in the middle is slightly domed to fit nicely in the palm of the hand.
•    The dial is moved by putting the finger into the indented teardrop – the shape allows you to intuit which direction to turn it on (‘head’ rather than ‘tail’ first).
•    The movement around the dial is comfortable and pleasing and it looks a little more friendly than the usual twiddled style, which to me has more of a technical feel.
•    One full movement around takes you from completely on to completely off – I think its nice to be able to clearly see the connection between the relative position of the dial and the relative lightness/darkness level – somehow it’s more fun to use.
•    There is a satisfying clunking/clicking when you switch it right on or right off – I think the sound and feel can really make a difference to how nice it is to operate a control.

3. Playing Cards

The result of refinements made by many people over a long period of time rather than the work of an individual.

Any number of different games can be played and created with these, with different numbers of players and different levels of difficulty.

The cards themselves are also perfect for purpose:

•    A full pack fits neatly into the hand and is easy to hold.
•    The smooth card surface is easy to slide, and so shuffle, deal etc.
•    The rounded corners make it less likely a card will be bent, whilst the pattern over the back helps to hide marks – therefore it is less easy for cards to become identifiable from the back.
•    The simultaneous similarity in layout for numbers yet clarity in suit shape helps each card to be seen immediately for what it is.
•    The indices at the corner of the card allow them to be recognised when fanned out in one hand.
•    This double ended design allows you to view the cards both ends up whilst remaining a unified whole (in contrast to split designs produced prior to this).

In addition, the cards traditional design with imagery and symbolism of hierarchy, war, religion, and riches, adds a sort of interest and depth to games that don’t specifically feature any of these concepts.

For these reasons I don’t see how the design could be much further improved – despite the appeal that pictures of a variety of naked girls may hold for some.