Awesome Web 2.0 Sites for Design Inspiration

Typical Components of Web 2.0 Site Design

• Lots of space: Web 2.0 sites tend to have a lot of wide-open space. It's a contrast from the 90s, where the trend was to make usage of every square inch of a website's home page with links, banners and applets. White space is embraced to a major degree, as it calls attention to important buttons and links.
• The "Less Is More" Mentality: By putting less on the page, you're drawing more attention to the elements that matter: content and call-to-action buttons. "Clutter" and Web 2.0 simply do not mix - this is a new era of design psychology.
• Gradients: Merely a design element, gradients are used in Web 2.0 site design to give a clean, soft impression that's easy on the eyes.
• Large Fonts: Huge headings are a popular trend in Web 2.0 design - headings are usually taglines that describe or summarize what a website is about in just a handful of words. It's a huge benefit to first-timer usability, especially since new visitors would like to "get to the point" without having to read an intro paragraph.
• Dramatic Color Contrast: Another typical element seen in Web 2.0 design are bright colors (particularly neon colors) that accent site elements including menus, separator bars and footers. Many sites use this same neon color for their hyperlinks and headings, as well. Sometimes, the contrast between bright neon colors and charcoal or light gray text are put in unison for a dramatic effect.
• Eye Candy Logos: In Web 2.0 logo design, it's almost expected to see logos have a shiny plastic luster, or a soft gradient. Most Web 2.0 fonts are similar to basic Arial, Tahoma or Helvetica, and are simple. The colors used within the logo are also typically mimicked on other site design pieces to create a sense of uniformity.
• Huge Buttons: Calls to action (buttons that prompt you to "Get More Information," "Download Now," "See A Demo" or "Buy Now") are typically gigantic in Web 2.0 design. They're also attractive, featuring a color that strays away from the rest of the website's schematic. These buttons are typically isolated by a great deal of space, making them very easy to notice.
• Reflections: Product images, screenshots and icons can be seen as having "reflections" underneath them, as if they were standing on top of a new laminate floor. It's a stereotypical design element of Web 2.0.
• Lots of Icons: Web 2.0 icons are always in vector format, which is the standard format created by software such as Adobe Illustrator and Flash. They're attractive and clean looking, and are used to either draw attention to a website's sub-categories, a product's individual features, or anything else that the web designer wanted to help associate for a viewer.
• Exaggerated Web Form Fields: Huge form fields add to usability and draw attention to sign-ups and registrations. Instead of typing in a search, a username or anything else into a tiny web field, Web 2.0 has evolved them into massive interactive boxes with large text that makes things easy to see. For a good example, look at Tumblr.com's huge fields.