Targeted Inspiration

You're sitting at your computer.

Photoshop is open. 1024 pixels of nothingness.

You need inspiration.

There are a million gallery sites that you could visit. There's Smashing Magazine. But my favorite tool is CommandShift3. CommandShift3 describes itself as "Hot or Not", except, instead of clicking on hot babes, you click on hot websites. Users are shown two websites and click on whichever one they think looks better.

I use CommandShift3's tagging system to see a list of well designed sites within a specific industry. If I were about to start working on a museum website, I'd go to:
http://commandshift3.com/tag/museum

Before starting work on a financial services site, I might check out:
http://commandshift3.com/tag/financial

Or maybe something in the health care industry:
http://commandshift3.com/tag/healthcare

You get the point, just type a tag into the url and see what comes up. Bonus feature—if you type in a word that isn't in their tagging database, you get a really cool 404 page.

Comments

Thursday, Mar 27, 2008 / 2:45pm Errol Sayre said…

THANK YOU TONS!

I've totally been looking for exactly this!

Thursday, Mar 27, 2008 / 2:54pm Dave Tufts said…

@Errol - no problem...

I also forgot to mention, once you're viewing the tag gallery, you can enter a battle for that tag.

For instance, in an 'auto' battle - http://commandshift3.com/tag-battle/auto - you're more apt to see a wider range of sites than in the 'best of' gallery - http://commandshift3.com/tag/auto

Thursday, Mar 27, 2008 / 4:02pm Elyse Holladay said…

The Elliot Jay Stocks 404 video is totally adorable. I love this site.

Comments have been turned off on this blog.
Read something more recent.

Statements and opinions expressed in this blog and any comments made are the private opinions of the respective poster, and, as such, iMarc LLC is neither responsible nor liable for such content.

Meet The Author

Dave Tufts

Vice President, Director of Technology

Search

Recent Blog Posts

Recent Comments

  • I LOLed

    Bill Keeshen commented: Nils, Love the site, congrats! You have a spirited culture as well! Regards, Bill

  • Changing Tradition (for the better)

    Nick commented: This is a fantastic and charitable idea! I would agree, purchasing from and donating to 2 local businesses is a win! Great job iMarc!

  • Content, Content, Content

    dano commented: Totally agree, once I start updating content on a regular basis I start seeing direct and repeat traffic increase exponentially! dano

  • I LOLed

    Pat McNally commented: Hi Nils, I have to be in NY this year for your 12/8 party (great invite), but wish I could be with you. I gave the invite to my 28 year old daughter, Jen Breaker, and urged her to stop in to say hi for me. I hope you and your family have a wonderful and exciting Christmas and holidays. Do you remember what I was doing on New…

  • I LOLed

    Patrick McPhail commented: I was going to go but Nick forgot to leave the keys to the developer shackles.

We heart Visitors

  • iMarc
  • 14 Inn Street
  • Newburyport, MA 01950
  • Phone: (978) 462-8848
  • Fax: (978) 462-8807
  • Directions

Contact Us

Whether you have a huge project or just want to talk about updating your site, we’re here to help. Fill out the form, and we’ll get right back to you.

Contact Us
  • All Fields Required

Close