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More niche design inspiration galleries popping up (do we really need them?)

I’ve written about emerging gallery-style websites like image bookmarking and information design. Here’s yet another trend: niche web design inspiration galleries. Here are examples of those classifications:

Most of these sites aren’t really new, except that enterprising webmasters are coming up with new categories more often—seemingly every week!

Do we really need new sites for all these categories? I would say yes. Despite the presence of categories and tags, custom search engines powered by Google, gallery aggregators like Most Inspired, you can never have an excessive supply of inspiration.

Plus, visual search using mere keywords is still ineffective. Usually because there isn’t enough care given into describing images. You can never really tell how many tags you can add to properly describe the look and feel of a website.

In fact, since websites are basically interfaces and not just 2-dimensional designs slapped onscreen, showcases and galleries should also focus on their interactive elements. That’s probably where pattern galleries like Pattern Tap comes in.

Published by Sophia Lucero on September 19, 2008 in Design and tagged , , , , , , , • Did you like it? Subscribe to RSS | Tweet it! | Stumble it! | Google Buzz it! | Submit it to Blogosphere News

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9 people says things!

  1. Hi Sophia,
    Great to know you think that Pattern Tap is a valuable site. We want to particularly differentiate from other galleries by being searchable and browsable. There are a host of improvements around the corner to improve this even more.

    We’d love to know more about how Pattern Tap is effecting designer’s processes of design so we can improve. Also, you can check for updates and other Pattern Tap news at the Pattern Tap Stream

    Cheers!

    Matthew

    By Matthew Smith on September 19, 2008 11:15 pm

  2. Here’s another such gallery:
    http://launchsoon.com/gallery.php

    By Toni on September 21, 2008 12:28 am

  3. From my Twitter: “Why do CSS “fight” sites only focus on screenshots, and not the actual CSS. It’s more like a Photoshop wank competition, to be honest.”

    By Kroc Camen on October 2, 2008 5:45 pm

  4. Here’s one more http://artondisplay.net

    By syed on October 8, 2008 10:16 am

  5. Nice list. Thought i would add that I’ve been updating Made in Australia most days for the lat 12 months with the latest sites by Aussie web designers.

    By Anthony on October 8, 2008 11:18 am

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