It's too bad these design awards often highlight sites that don't show much of anything and interfaces that don't do much of anything. There's some nice art there (most of it self-promotional) but there just aren't many design challenges to solve on many of those sites. This is my favorite design of 2010 (though it's been around in lesser forms for a while): http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/live/NBA_20101216_A...

That interface takes all the information about an ongoing basketball game and organizes it visually while making it look appealing. It's also very much _web_ design, with dozens of useful links woven in all over the place. I guess you could say that's technically information architecture or UX or something, but to me it's the core of really valuable design.

Yeah, I'd like to see "Best UI/UX of 2010". Not to degrade the work they've done, some of these designs are really nice, but it's more like "art", than something functional.

agreed. scanning through it was obvious most of it was agency work, much with that distinct corporate design style. The agency sites themselves are usually mis-representative anyway because of the shear amount of effort and polish that gets put into them. Most clients won't be willing to pay for that much work, and often won't get the cherry picked staff assigned to them.

I wish I could make sites like these. However I have the aesthetic sensibilities of a fridge magnet, so I think I'd better stick to code.

I used to think the same thing, but now I think that artistic skill is like any other. Some people are more natural than others, but in the end you've got to work hard to get it. I guarantee you that every one of those designers have put forth enormous amounts of effort to be proficient.

I'm learning design because I don't want to have to rely on others to be creative for me. It's a slow and laborious process, but can be fun when I look back on previous projects.

2008: http://pycmds.appspot.com/

2009: http://www.caterpi.com/

2010: http://www.thrutched.com/

In my own path I'm far from there yet, though I know where I want to be.

I think you are absolutely right. While we all have natural talents and proclivities, being good at one thing, like coding, doesn't mean you're hopeless at another, like designing. I think coders expect that if we can't design as effortlessly as we code, we've got no business doing it, but if you put the same level of effort into learning it as you would a new technology, you'll probably be surprised at the results.

Can you share some of the best resources you've found for learning?

I have a list of pages that I find inspiring. The thread link and http://dribbble.com/ are great to find new ones.

Every once in awhile, I'll look through them and try to emulate something that is within my reach.

Here's a few recent ones:

http://dustincurtis.com/press_on.html

http://nerdcommunications.com/

http://www.thecleanestline.com/

http://letteringjs.com/

I started learning Photoshop & Illustrator about a week ago. Youtube is great for tutorials on specific things such as tool usage, colors.

Just found this one for Illustrator: http://www.ndesign-studio.com/tutorials

Fonts are also quite important to catch people's eye. I'm dabbling in the free stuff now, but I think TypeKit is also quite nice.

http://code.google.com/webfonts

well maybe fridge magnets have awesome aesthetic sensibilities and you write beautiful code? ;)