Graphic Rating » Inspiration

Slider Components in Corporate Websites

Andy Gongea — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:54:43 +0000

Displaying content in a manner that fits your site can be difficult sometimes. And other times can be handled using a content slider. Let’s see how big corporate companies handle this task and integrate slider components in their websites. We will cover in this post 2 or 3 sites from the same domain to see how competition handles the same task.

BlackBerry

Apart from the fact that BlackBerry’s slider content is outstanding and very creative, it also takes the main part of the site making the slider the most important part on the homepage.

Palm

Palm takes the slider component and uses it in a slightly different manner. Instead of being the main focus on the front page, Palm has a smaller vertical slider that is more subtle than the one from BlackBerry.

HTC

You can see a big resemblance between HTC and BlackBerry. HTC uses the slider as the main component on the same page though the style is more clean and with a sketchy touch.

HP

HP takes the content slider a little bit further compared to previous sliders. Apart from the usual navigation, HP adds a play, previous and next buttons and makes the slider static in the first place.

Lenovo

Lenovo is another company that has a big slider on the first page as well. Actually almost all big players from the PC domain have and on Lenovo’s site you can see a simple one with a simple numbers based navigation.

Acer

Compared to Lenovo, Acer has its main page deigned as a big slider with thumbnails position in the bottom right side for navigation. From this selection of sliders it is the one with the strongest presence.

Microsoft

We can’t have this showcase without mentioning Microsoft. On its first page Microsoft has a slider like a horizontal accordion. It is a different approach compared with the rest sliders, it shows the content clearly and I assume it drives good conversion since it is on Microsoft website for quite some time.

IBM

I actually can’t remember IBM’s site without a slider. I think that is because IBM had few updates on the design and that a slider was involved in one way or another. Anyway, the slider looks great because it always has great images and a simple fade+slide in effect for text.

Oracle

What ca we say about Oracle’s slider. Not much actually … it is simple, powered by great images and it has a simple navigation placed in the top right side.

SAP

SAP, Oracle’s biggest competitor has a slider too. The difference is that the navigation is based on thumbnails, in this case faces of important people.

Nvidia

Nvidia relies heavily on the slider to notice the user about latest events and products. Its slides are often small videos that enhance the importance of the slider.

ATI

AMD/ATI has a different opinion on how to use a slider. On their site, you can find 2 smaller sliders – one to promote technologies and another to showcase products.

Intel

Now that we’ve covered AMD, we must cover Intel. And Intel has a slider too, but bigger (no wonder), with blue based images in order to emphasize Intel brand.

AOL

A different segment where content sliders are often used is the segment of portals. And AOL is one of the top portals with a small slider in the center of the page that showcases the most important news.

MSN

MSN falls in the same category as AOL and it has a slider with the same functionality as AOL. But you will notice that MSN has a much more cleaner approach.

NewEgg

The last 2 examples are from e-commerce sites. The first one is NewEgg a great site for electronics that uses the slider component at a lower scale compared to early showcased sites. The main purpose of the slider is to present the latest promotions.

Target

The last item on our list is Target.com. Compared to NewEgg, its slider has a different approach, covering a lot of space but promoting general stuff rather than specific.

As you can see, slider components are widely spread and also are becoming popular. From blogs to corporate websites we find these components scattered across the web. Let us know what you think about this component or other great samples of sliders.

Cheers!

Web Design Inspiration: Merix Studio

Andy Gongea — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:03:46 +0000

I am speechless. This is by far one of the most impressive web designs and implementations I’ve seen in the last years. It has everything, from graphics, unique style to make it identifiable, great implementation, smooth animations to a nice feeling when you come on the site. Congratulations and keep up the excellent work!
KUDOS!!!

Merix Studio – http://www.worldofmerix.com/

Web Design Inspiration: KISSmetrics

Andy Gongea — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:11:26 +0000

The third site in the Inspiration category is KISSmetrics. I will not speak too much about it because the design speaks for itself. The colors are well connected as well as the typography and images. Also you can check their blog too, because it has a simple design using same elements from the main site.

Web Design Inspiration: Kyan Media

Andy Gongea — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:12:56 +0000

This is the second post for the latest Graphic Rating category – Inspiration. And for today, our subject is the great website from Kyan Media.

Kyan

“We are a creative web design & development agency with a passion for web standards” – Kyan Media

I really think that this site has it all, from the visual side to the performance side, KyanMedia.com is one great design inspiration.

It has a simple yet good navigation, interesting colors and a pleasant way to display content. Also, another thing that you can benefit from this site is the portfolio. In this section you will find a lot of great samples for inspiration.

Web Design Inspiration: 2010 Ford Fusion

Andy Gongea — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:30:56 +0000

Great Perspective. What I like most is that all motions and dynamics are suitable for this type of site and for the auto industry. The new Ford Hybrid represents this new wave in cars technology and the same new wave had to be pictured in the site. Well, I must say that the site looks very clean, fresh and with the help of visual interactions and perspective, the designers made a perfect composition for an auto site.

Simple and effective. Different sections of the website are sustained not only by creative 3d animations but also from graphic elements and strong colors. Another thing that I like is how the information is structured and displayed. You will not see tons of details on this site, instead you will see dedicated sections and lot of space – which is a good thing.

Conclusion. Overall, I’m very impressed by this site and I really recommend it as an inspiration source for dynamic websites. Even the 3d animators can learn some tricks from this site. All they have to do is check some of the 3d animations.

2010 Ford Fusion and Fusion Hybrid

Technology: Adobe Flash
Characteristics: Dynamic, Clean, Great User Experience, Perspective