Sure, if you wanted to design a new webpage you could just use your own imagination as a source of inspiration. That does come with a few dangers, however. For example, you might find that what you think is cool isn’t what the mainstream think of as super-duper. In fact, there’s a good chance that you’ll end up running up against convention, which is what people expect.

It’s a much better idea, for that reason, to check out what other people are doing and take those elements that you think are most pertinent for your webpage and throw those up. The thing is, where do you see what other people are doing? Do you just surf at random and hope for the best?

That could work. You might run into some really wacky designs that way. At the same time, you’re going to find a lot of mediocre pages as well. And that’s just a waste of time. Instead, why not go and look at what the industry thinks are some of the biggest and the best? Then you’ll not only be aware of what is going on right now, but also what we’ll see happening in the days to come.

And then you’ll be ahead of the curve, which is a great place to be.

Awwwards

The website Awwwards always have to go on the top of any such list, as this is where the design community gives out prizes for creativity, design and inspiration on the internet. It’s a great source of inspiration, full of pages that do things just that bit differently.

Here you can see what is coming, which you can then incorporate into your webpage to make it look like you’re the genius that came up with it. After all, how many people actually look at these kinds of sites, right?

The Design Inspiration

These guys pride themselves on selecting web pages that do things differently and creatively. You’ll never see websites that just repeat the same old on The Design Inspiration. Instead, it’s all about designs that are left-field and different.

Now, you might not agree with their selection in all cases. Some might go too far for you. That, however, is not the point. You’re looking here to be inspired by things that really fit you and your audience. And though that might not be everything that’s being offered on this website, you’re sure to find some examples that fit like a glove.

SiteInspire

What really makes SiteInspire work is that they don’t just offer you inspiring websites, but they offer you all kinds of filters so that you can find the website that you really want to look for. In this way, they make sure that you don’t waste your time looking at, say, children’s websites when you’re trying to set something up for your plumbing business.

It’s also great that you can go straight to the website without having to pass through any intermediary pages, as that is going to save you time especially on those days where the internet is slow.

Pinterest

If you want to try something a little bit different, then look through pinterest. The great thing here is that you might find things that the snobs that do design find beneath their notice, but for you is exactly right and perfect.

That’s because pinterest is socially curated, with no single group of people in control. This has another advantage and that is that they can curate far more content then the other websites. This, aided with their great search system, where you can look at hundreds of pages at the same time, makes this a great one if you really want to explore alternative ideas.

Little Big Details

This one’s a little bit different from the rest. Here the idea is to give you insights into how you can build great user interfaces.

In this way, when you’ve selected the basic idea from the pages I outlined already, you can then decide how you’re going to put up the interface by looking at what Little Big Details has highlighted for you some of the great options out there, so that you can skip all the mistakes that you’re likely to make if you don’t have that much experience and move straight to the good stuff.

Of course, they don’t have any content for you. You’ll still have to work on that yourself, though there are plenty of services out there that can help. Personally I quite like essay republic, but you should really shop around.

Flickr

Another great website to get good ideas is Flickr. Why, you ask? Because it’s all about photos and photographers. Often, these types of people have some great creative insights that are right at the cutting edge of what’s going on out there.

The downside is that you can’t just see a page straightaway. Instead, you’ve got to drill down through a bunch of links to get to where they’re housing their content. That can be really annoying and time consuming and that’s why it goes way down on my list. Still, it’s on my list for a reason. So if you don’t find what you’re looking for on any of the other pages, go here.

Last words

If you want to design a webpage, take your time. A lot of the ideas that are being presented on these websites take a bit of time to digest. Sure, you’ll understand the superficial ideas well enough pretty quickly, but what it is really about is the underlying concepts.

Those take a few sessions to actually internalize. So, I’m hoping for your sake that your website doesn’t have to go up next week. Because then you can take the time to see what are the underlying elements that really make a website tick. And that will make it far more likely that your website is as cool and original as you’ll want it to be while still being functional and enjoyable to surf through.