The best ones are those when it doesn’t take forever to load and doesn’t keep stopping to load between pages - if it does need time to load then use some clever animation to fill the time. Once it has loaded it’s nice when it is obvious where to click next! A lot of these sites work because there isn't too much information on screen, so holding back on text is important. Lots of slick flash animation and video make you want to proceed further and having a narative throughout the site helps to hold people. A clever use of sound and music runs through these sites, but the music always compliments the animation and is not over the top. I think the video presenters (embedded video of a presenter guiding you through the site) make web browsing more of a televisual experience, and may make it easier to navigate and use the site.
Audio/Video Archive sites
These websites have a similar idea to the BBC with regards to AV Content:
CBC Digital Archives Website
http://www.cbc.ca/archives
FourDocs Channel 4 New
http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs
FRONTLINE/World
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/
Educational, Science & Nature
WWF Save our Climate
http://wwf.ca/HowYouCanHelp/SaveOurClimate/
Forests Forever, Japanese Site
http://www.forests-forever.com/
BBC OneLife Drugs awereness - nice use fo Video and Flash http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onelife/fun/health/excess/drop_test.html
Chernobyl Legacy
http://www.magnuminmotion.com/essay_chernobyl/
Remember Segregation - thought provoking and curious
http://www.remembersegregation.org/
Ecellent examples of mixing Flash and Video
Amazing - a science fiction adventure promoting milk
http://www.planetinneed.com/
Freedom of the Seas
This site was made by the same company that made the wonderful interactive encyclopedia on CD Rom about 8 years ago. This is very similar only delivered via broadband rather than CD.
http://www.freedomoftheseas.com/
Channel One
This has a nice intro - a friendly and welcoming face:
http://www.channelone.com/
Nice navigation
http://www.anacarolina.com/
Nice for music fans good way of presenting music and feeling a personal touch from the artist http://www.billyharveymusic.com/
Nice homepage for a recuiting site
http://www.fullsail.com/
Interesting presentation and navigation, using animation of hands
http://www.kamikadze.sk/
Video Virtual presenters for kids. animation bit slow http://www.flypentop.com/view/page.home/home
Photographer’s portfolio presented without any text using virtual presenters: http://www.matthewmahon.com/
Virtual Video Bartender
http://www.thebar.com/
Slick Commercial Advertising
Fashion
Bebop Jeans – great Kids site, colourful and fun to navigate
http://www.bebopjeans.com/
Kangaroos Shoes
http://www.kangaroos.com/uk/
Wonderbra - just fun to visit!
http://www.experiencewonderyou.co.uk/
Lynx effect - bit like the Wonderbra website
http://www.clickmore.com/
Cars
Mercedes, Video virtual presenter
http://www.mbusa.com/microsite/s-class/index.jsp
Kia Motors
http://newcarnival.kiamotors.com/
Saab, nice way to present a car, through the eyes of an animal: http://www.saab.com/microsites/animalvision/GLOBAL/en/index2.shtml
Other Commercial
Red Bull Co-pilot, cool design, sound fx, video embedded
http://www.redbullcopilot.com/
Sprite
http://www.sprite3g.be/
Philips, Video virtual presenter
http://www.shaveeverywhere.com/
More Fancy Sites with rich graphics and flash
Just need to be careful how long people are prepared to wait for a flash animation. I think its important to have a less graphics intensive version too.
Weird TV - just fantastic to play with
http://www.weird.tv/
Big Fat Institute of Interactive Ideas
http://www.bigfatinstitute.org/index_flash.html
Big Ideas Come From Big Pencils - a novel way of navigating a website - by scribbling.
http://www.leoburnett.ca/
Rathergood - This site has been around for years it may look a bit naff but explore and you'll find some funny and random stuff, animations and songs.
http://www.rathergood.com/
Renaissance Movie Site
http://www.renaissancethemovie.co.uk/accueil.htm
BeatBox
http://www.beatboxmixer.com/
Dixie Chicks
Fun to explore a virtual town – promoting an album
http://www.dixiechicks.com/underground/
Lab 25, fashion designers portfolio
http://www.lab25.com/
