"Posters, Art Prints, and Framed Art Leader"

Not surprisingly, Art.com is an e-commerce site dedicated to selling...you guessed it, art. They offer a range of products such as prints, various artist collections, lithographs, and pretty cool looking tapestries. They offer a magazine / catalouge quarterly, and subscriber-based email dispatch. However, the website is where all of the recent updates and main "action" are.

The site has a simple design, and a pretty basic left-sided navigation that controls what you view. Beyond that, the shopping cart, search, and Best Sellers are really the only other content to be found - which is perfectly fine for a site that gets right to the point.

I've personally used this site a few times, and found the ordering system quick and painless - most commerce sites like to waste my time with ads and crap while I sign up and make an order. This was fast and effecient. I also found the navigation and the thumbnail browsing of the products to be pretty well layed-out. I've gone to a lot of sites where there is 20 thumbnails set on 7 pages. This site throws as much as it can on one page so you aren't left clicking "next page" more than actually buying/browsing. I can't fault the color scheme or the visual elements on the site much here, and it achieves every goal possible to get it's point across, so this site wins all around.

Pros:
-Easy to Navigate
-Easy to Shop Interface

"Browser Game - Romans, Gauls, & Teutons"

Travian is a German browser-based game developed by Travian Games GmbH that is largely based on a predecessor game called Tribal Wars. In 2006, the game was ranked first in the "best browser-based game with over 10,000 players" category of the German website Travian Games. Along with two English versions, and the original German version, the game has been translated into 30 other languages, and today has just over 3 million players worldwide.It is programmed in PHP and was the first game of its type to be playable through a mobile phone using a java platform

Travian is financed through players upgrading accounts with Travian Plus and Web banners. Faced with further financial difficulties of maintaining Travian, a further 'Gold' feature was introduced, which was met with controversy. The introduction of 'Gold' allows players to directly influence the game mechanics: for instance, by increasing resource production, instant completion of building and researches or applying a strength bonus to troops. Most recently, Travian has expanded to include a "Travian Shop" which includes many things from shirts to mugs to many other things.

The site is pretty poor on the visual design aspect, although the game itself is pretty well done, so I suppose that makes up for it. The content tends to be the only focus, and it's available via phone, so I can understand why it's not very flashy and full of visual fluff. If you want a full flash-based insanely visual web-game, then you may be in the wrong place.

Pros:
-Great content and easy to get into

Cons:
-Sometimes can run pretty slow

"The Phoenix Requiem Webcomic"

The Phoenix Requiem is a fantasy graphic novel written and drawn by Sarah Ellerton, an author and artist of another graphic novel named Inverloch. TPR is currently only available as a webcomic and follows several main characters, mostly in a single location. It takes place in a setting similar to Victorian-era England. The comic's first pages were published on September 27, 2007. The Phoenix Requiem is incomplete and currently updating with new pages on Mondays and Thursdays. Updates are usually 2-3 pages. As of April 2008 it encompasses 5 chapters and 126+ pages.

This site may look like yet another webcomic site at first glance, but you'll note there's a lot more substance than that once you dig deeper. The overall theme the author seems to strive for is more of a film-like story, that plays out slow at first and eventually builds towards a dramatic close - much like her last graphic novel.

The site is pretty template-looking and simple, but really does a good job of still finding a way to have some content and get users to poke around a bit. There could be a bit more content and interactivity, as well as some downloads - after all, the author is an amazing artist and it kills me to not be able to order a print or even dowmload a decent wallpaper from the site.

Pros:
-High quality content
-Easy to navigate

Cons:
-Needs more content
-Ought to showcase more of the artist's work

"Best free documentaries from BBC, PBS and other stations. If you love free documentaries, you'll love this site."

I like getting free stuff off the internet, especially videos. That's why this is one of my favorite sites to visit.

At first this site looks like crap, with a blog-page simply set up to post new videos and links to videos. At second glance and beyond, well, it's nothing more. The site is pretty trashy, but the main point of it is in it's content that it provides - or hotlinks from other places. Regardless, this can be a nice site to spend some free time on, watching a documentary or two.

If you're looking for a youtube style navigation, divx quality video site, then don't come here. If you just want some crude and to the point content that might be your cup of tea, then check it out.

Pros:
-Interesting content
-Fast content, rarely a broken link

Cons:
-Templated and ugly page "design"
-Content is random, user has no control
-No navigation, just blog-post style content

"Best free documentaries from BBC, PBS and other stations. If you love free documentaries, you'll love this site."

I like getting free stuff off the internet, especially videos. That's why this is one of my favorite sites to visit.

At first this site looks like crap, with a blog-page simply set up to post new videos and links to videos. At second glance and beyond, well, it's nothing more. The site is pretty trashy, but the main point of it is in it's content that it provides - or hotlinks from other places. Regardless, this can be a nice site to spend some free time on, watching a documentary or two.

If you're looking for a youtube style navigation, divx quality video site, then don't come here. If you just want some crude and to the point content that might be your cup of tea, then check it out.

Pros:
-Immense visual content
-Content and navigation is clearly layed out

Cons:
-At times there is too much visuals and not enough content
-Content is random, user has no control
-Many browser incompatibilities