My Shiny Happy Research

It doesn't look like I have too much to compete with on the creativity front as far as funeral websites go. All of them look the same. They all must assume that what the outside of the funeral home looks like is the most important consideration to the customer, because every site prominently displays a picture of the home's exterior on the front page. And it's always a shiny happy day. Many also feature pictures of the "team" that runs the funeral home. They're all shiny happy people--People I'd definitely hand-pick to handle my dead husband's body. Some sites display religious icons to communicate the affiliation of the religion. Other important factors are of course contact information and directions...TO HELL!
I'm getting some website ideas...

Concept Driven Websites

www.pandora.com:
I think everyone knows about Pandora by now. Pandora asks the user to provide her favorite song or artist, and then Pandora follows the style of that music and compiles a playlist of new music for the user to explore. The design resembles a jukebox, with the album covers moving right to left as a song is played. The jukebox is navigatible to where the user can find out more about the song, why Pandora picked it, rate the song, or skip it altogether and go to the next selection. Pandora's concept is to make this seem like some act that is bettering the world through music. Accordingly, they don't want to make it obvious that they're selling the service. The user is prompted to sign up for an account only after she tries to skip multiple songs. Even then, the user is not forced to sign up, but only kindly told the she can't skip any more songs at this time unless he signs up. What I like least about the site itself is, of course, all the ads. But that's to be expected.

http://jacksonpollock.org:
The concept is: Just have fun. Waste time. Be creative. Accordingly, there's nothing on this site 'cept the paint and the cursor.

nytimes.com
I've talked to many older people who say they would never read a paper online because they need to have that feel of a paper version in their hands. The concept of the NYTimes website, I believe, is to replicate the organization of a physical newspaper. The home page has a layout similar to the front page of a newspaper, with story headlines surrounding a centerpeice picture. Users can flip through pages by clicking on topic tabs. The site does a good job of organizing a ton of information.

Hardest assignment yet. Albeit 1st.

A surprisingly tough request. As much time as I waste on the internets, one would think that I'd know some cool-looking sites. The following is a mix of some that look hot, some that don't. Some I visit and navigate often, while some I hardly touch.

Some I just found. They're toward the end. Accordingly, the examples get more interesting as the list goes on.

www.youaredamned.com. The coolest looking site I know*. Though, I wish there were some kind of search feature where I could locate names.

www.becominghuman.org. Becoming Human features an interactive documentary that I think takes fledgling steps toward interactive learning.

drunkmenworkhere.org/memetree.php. Now this is very interesting. I have no idea how it works. But what's happening is the site is showing the spread of an idea. In this example, the spread is illustrated by people linking to the site. Maybe I'll get a branch now.

And, at this point I've resorted to googling "cool looking sites."... I give http://coolwebsites.dk/ credit for the following:

www.deepsun.net/eng/. I enjoy the colors, background, and general zen serenity of this site.

www.diet-riot.net Food rioting, warring, and break-dancing. I have no idea what's going on and I love it.

*Written before finishing the blog post. I may have to vote for the fighting food now.