Inspiration is important when you’re doing anything, but especially in web design. It’s not just because it can save you a lot of tedious hours trying to create something from scratch but it shows you what works and what doesn't.

Pinterest is the go to moodboard creator or inspiration website these days. A simple keyword search will usually give 1000’s of related photos and images. This can be good for finding specific styles or themes but sometimes the search is too broad.

A Pinterest search for ‘Web Design’ yields plenty of results ranging from infographics to coding cheat sheets, yet there is hardly any real website inspiration. Today, we take a look at a few alternatives to Pinterest when looking for web design inspiration. Check them out below!

SiteInspire

SiteInspire was founded in March of 2009. Since then it has gone on to become one of the largest and most well-respected showcases of web design. SiteInspire websites, directory of agencies, and freelancers are curated by Howells—Studio.

The large amount of content is well tagged allowing you to easily filter which sites you’d like to view. Even the more obscure keywords will garner some accurate hits.

Plus, you can browse over 5,700 websites by subject, style, type, and more. There’s a reason why SiteInspire has been around for a long time, check it out before your next web design project! 

Awwwards

This website is perfect for browsing amazing websites on the front of web design and development. Right now, Awwwards is basically the industry standard when it comes to ranking and acknowledging the highest-quality web design that’s being produced today.

Most inspiration websites are smaller projects done by one or a few individuals. This can often make specific styles more popular on some sites. However, Awwwards has created a concrete  rating system that is pretty easy for everyone to understand. They also have a jury of web experts who rate each site on specific guidelines, and you get to see everybody's individual ratings of a site. 

Websites aren’t just evaluated visually either, they are ranked according to many different factors like site design, usability, creativity, and even content. The scoring breakdown really shows you what a website is doing right and wrong, which makes it very helpful to web designers.

Best Website Gallery

The Best Website Gallery is a one man side project started by David Hellmann in 2008. This site has become a nicely curated gallery of quality web design inspiration for any web designer.

Along with the other websites I’ve listed, Best Website Gallery has a good tagging system allowing you to search for though over 2,000 sites based on functionality, design approach, style, and even colour! Searching by colour is a nice added touch so you can quickly find similar websites that use the colour well.

Bonus: Brutalist Websites

Brutalist Websites is a personal favourite of mine. You won’t find much professional guidance on Brutalist Websites but it’s a refreshing view on websites that don’t care about getting an audience. The websites feel raw and industrial compared to most sites you encounter today. It may not be the best place to find a nice grid but it shows an alternative to what we know as good web design.

There’s full sites dedicated to single images and old english script dominated landscapes, Brutalist Websites shows us what the web would be like if MySpace still dominated the social media scene. Expect crazy cursor effects, full page headlines, and a UX designed to infuriate not navigate. Nobody asked for these websites but they’re here with a creative force that’s undeniable.

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Filed in // Websites