Soldato
Even though I personally consider 2Advanced's showcase sites to be pretty dire as far as functional websites go, they do have a good sense of that particular industrial/tech style. Not my bag, but good work all the same.
Despite the negative responses they get, they must be doing something right. Of all the websites out there, this is the one site that I (and I'm sure many others) have seen consistently linked to for the apparent 'wow factor' over the past 4-5 (?) years. You rarely, if ever, see beautiful, cleanly coded, accessible and cutting-edge sites linked to with the same sort of comment outside of industry and hobbyist circles. The very real fact is very few people care if the site validates, is accessible in a screenreader, is marked up semantically or displays any other of the best practices good web-designers strive for.
If it manages to makes a lasting impression, regardless of implementation, then it's a success. And if the fundamental concept of the web is linking, and being linked to, then perhaps 2Advanced is one of the best designed sites on the web. It's probably one of, if not the best known Flash showcase sites around, and they've gained significant exposure from it.
However, take a look at the most popular and successful sites on the web, and tell me if they're examples of good design - myspace, sina, google, ebay...
Perhaps then, the genuinely best-designed sites out there are those that aren't.
Despite the negative responses they get, they must be doing something right. Of all the websites out there, this is the one site that I (and I'm sure many others) have seen consistently linked to for the apparent 'wow factor' over the past 4-5 (?) years. You rarely, if ever, see beautiful, cleanly coded, accessible and cutting-edge sites linked to with the same sort of comment outside of industry and hobbyist circles. The very real fact is very few people care if the site validates, is accessible in a screenreader, is marked up semantically or displays any other of the best practices good web-designers strive for.
If it manages to makes a lasting impression, regardless of implementation, then it's a success. And if the fundamental concept of the web is linking, and being linked to, then perhaps 2Advanced is one of the best designed sites on the web. It's probably one of, if not the best known Flash showcase sites around, and they've gained significant exposure from it.
However, take a look at the most popular and successful sites on the web, and tell me if they're examples of good design - myspace, sina, google, ebay...
Perhaps then, the genuinely best-designed sites out there are those that aren't.