Sneaking into Future: 25 Ultra Modern Websites Using HTML5
Tom Walker
HTML5, the next major revision of HTML, the language of the internet, is set to revolutionize the way web developers and designers create websites and the way visitors use them. It’s being edited by Ian Hickson of Google and David Hyatt of Apple, two of the web’s greatest creative minds.
Besides enabling web developers/designers to use cleaner, simpler, more consistent code, HTML5 will help them break free from the confines of 3rd party proprietary plugins like Adobe Flash. For the first time, it will be possible to achieve consistency between video player interfaces and overall website design. Users will be able to rotate, move, resize and even detect motion in a video while its playing, using inbuilt video controls.
Through HTML5’s canvas element, users will be able to render graphics and images on the fly, again without the need for plugins. You can try rotating an HTML5 video here and using the canvas element here. Both feel truly amazing!
Besides demos and other online experiments, there are actually a number of working sites using HTML5 today, although few, if any, make the most of this language’s potential capabilities. We explore 25 of the best below, the vast majority of which belong to web developers and web development agencies keen to show off their HTML5 skills to potential clients. Take a look and explore the code for an insight into the future of the internet. Be warned, however, few display properly in Internet Explorer.
1. Ella Design
Originally from Hong Kong, but now based in the USA, Ella of Ella Design is an award-winning graphic/web designer with over 8 years experience in the industry. Her website is a “playground” in which she engages with HTML5 and CSS 3.
2. Pelletized
Pelletized is the site of Ed Wheeler, Oregon-based graphic/web designer and HTML/CSS developer extraordinaire. He’s played a major hand in the creation of several high-profile sites, including JobInterviewEdge.com and EssayEdge.com.
3. MiniApps
MiniApps is a mobile phone app microsite from Alex Gibson, currently offering two great, free apps for iPhone, Android, Palm Pre and Firefox Mobile: Card Flip, a classic memory game, and Checklist, a to-do and shopping list tool.
4. Donkey Magic
Donkey Magic is Richard Stephenson’s blog. He uses it to keep the world up-to-date with his web development work and life in general. Recent posts include a CSS 3 & jQuery image gallery experiment.
5. Bonsai
Bonsai is a unique web development tool used to build sites that feature lots of images. Bonsai’s own website has been created using HTML5.
6. letscountthedays
letscountthedays is the online portfolio of Shane Howe, web and user interface designer. His client list includes Pinnacle Security and Urban Shadow, for whom he performed all web design, branding and even online copy writing.
7. Sarsini
Learn more about Martin Sarsini, Glasgow-based web developer, on this HTML5-fortified site. This site, which incorporates a blog, is simple, but very stylish.
8. Nimbupani
Nimbupani is home to web designer, Divya Manian. Obsessed with HTML5, you can learn a lot from her blog as well as her Twitter page.
9. Ousmane Ndiaye
Ousmane Ndiaye is a passionate, French web designer. An SEO and W3C standards specialist, his site makes the most of current HTML5 knowledge.
10. Media Research Institute
Experts in all things web based, the Media Research Institute operates from Tokyo, Japan. Besides building websites, the company has produced many popular mobile apps, such as Mixi.
11. Anino
An interesting bunch, Anino are a shadow puppet collective based in the Philippines. Their site offers listings of upcoming shadow-puppet performances as well as several videos highlighting their work.
12. CatCubed
CatCubed is the site of Colin Fahrion, artist, designer, developer and avid cyclist. The site looks great in Firefox and Safari, but Internet Explorer can’t handle the large amount of CSS 3 used.
13. Impactideas
Impactideas is a small graphic design studio based in Belgium with a lovingly designed website. They specialize in the creation of logos, brochures, catalogues and packaging.
14. Moriconi
Moriconi is a highly fashionable Italian hair studio, based in Camaiore, Lucca, Tuscany. HTML5 has brought this straightforward site to the cutting edge of modern web design.
15. LittleCoogie
LittleCoogie, based in Bangkok, Thailand, sells high-end children’s party clothing through its HTML5 e-commerce site, made by Andrew Brundle. Its color-picker tool is a great feature.
16. OK Cool
German fashion blog, OK Cool, incorporates HTML5 into its search functionality and comment forms.
17. Dn’D
French web development agency and Magento e-commerce expert, Dn’D, has created a really stylish site for itself, even if it is a little too reminiscent of the standard OS X Leopard background. Since its formation in 2004, Dn’D has worked with BP, Warner Bros and many other high-profile clients.
18. Sprachkonstrukt
Sprachkonstrukt is a blog covering all things related to design, photography and digital lifestyles. It’s managed by Ruben Deyhle, a web developer who also runs a photo blog on the site.
19. Stompfrog
Stompfrog, website of web designer/developer Chris Bewick, is a wonder to navigate around. Users can scroll through the website using their mouse wheel- a highly original touch.
20. Shape Shed
Shape Shed, website of freelance, London-based developer George Ornbo, was built using Jekyll, a simple static site generator, as well as CSS 3, jQuery and HTML5. Firefox or Safari is needed to see the site as George intended.
21. Smile Sleepy
Jamie Calabro is a web designer/developer with a great knowledge of everything from HTML to CSS, JavaScript, SEO, brand development and even print and packaging design. He can count Coca-Cola amongst his past clients. Smile Sleepy is Jamie’s place to showcase his work to the world.
22. sw’as
The rather unusually named sw’as is the home of 26-year-old web developer Simon Elvery. Alongside engaging articles on everything and anything internet related, you’ll find musings on politics, books, movies, music and more.
23. Frojd
Frojd is a beautifully designed blog from Swedish digital agency of the same name. Thanks to plenty of white space and a grassy header image, this site feels as fresh and airy as a Swedish fjord.
24. Tim Benniks
Tim Benniks is a Dutch web professional who specializes in the development of simple, intuitive interfaces. Use his site to get in touch with Tim himself or to view his past projects, which include a new CMS called Zotonic.
25. DS3
From Sao Paolo, Brazil, DS3 is a web agency with a fantastic eye for visual communication and style. It recently masterminded a new branding initiative for the largest maker of forklift trucks in Latin America, Paletrans.
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Manuel
Posted 8 days ago 30This is another html5 website.
Young Bit
deepak
Posted 16 days ago 29wow.. great collection , HTML5 is quickly growing in popularity thanks for the collection
Yaroslav
Posted 24 days ago 28Hi! Also, check this site: http://www.djyarus.info
pure HTML5 / CSS3 / JavaScript
))
Ryan
Posted 86 days ago 27I like the examples, but this website is with real modern design: http://www.n1webdesign.com
I liked very much!
Christian
Posted 92 days ago 26Check out iteam.se – Swedish tech agency with ultra-wide html5 site
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Posted 150 days ago 24Howdy! I just want to give a huge thumbs up for the nice data you could have right here on this post. I might be coming again to your weblog for more soon.
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Posted 177 days ago 23People do wait for such sharing, like me. Thank you very much.
John Disaso
Posted 309 days ago 22I like the Impactideas site. I think they have used the all new HTML 5 features to leverage the system. Looks fantastic to me.
Ronald Dan
Posted 142 days ago 25We both share the same taste John. To me i believe the HTML5 has been extensively used too. Such a nice site should get any award.
Alberto Dieago
Posted 334 days ago 21I love the rounded corner support in HTML5 also the video capabilities. But i couldn’t see any of them are using rounded corners. What is the special features these sites where using apart from old HTML format?
Evan Byrne
Posted 689 days ago 18Nice to see I’m not the only one using HTML5!
Dan O'Neill
Posted 689 days ago 17Some very nice websites there, some with some excellent features that pop out at you. I wonder though, with some notable exceptions(Dn’D's typography, Tim Benniks’ layout) are these the best?
That said, I couldn’t come with a better list! :) Keep up the good work!
Datu
Posted 690 days ago 16This is a nice surprise. Thank you for mentioning Anino. Although I must agree with some who commented before me… we’ve barely scratched the surface of HTML5. We have a lot of learning to do.
But, still, thank you for the recognition and the extra traffic. ;-)
Keep it up.
Justin Carroll
Posted 690 days ago 15Not very revolutionary; however, we’re just scratching the surface of HTML5 and it’s good to see designers pushing forward on the front lines.
Angel Grablev
Posted 690 days ago 14Get started yourself using the 52framework! HTML5, CSS3, and it works cross-browser (yeah that includes ie6).
Shay Howe
Posted 691 days ago 13Tom thanks for the recognition here, I really appreciate it.
HTML5 is quickly growing in popularity and getting your hands on it now will quickly pay off.
.-= Shay Howe´s last blog ..Defining A Multivariate Test =-.
Ross
Posted 691 days ago 11I’m failing to see what makes these sites so special. From a design perspective they are good but not great, and whilst they use html5, I’m not really ‘getting’ what’s being achieved here. Semantic markup? Does anyone care?
Helen
Posted 691 days ago 9Ella Design is a good example about what might happen, when HTML5 will have become a standard: Ella is HTML5, but it is not semantic. Having a deeper look into the markup, I would say, it is unsemantic in a remarkable way. It is a hell of layout divs.
Radu
Posted 691 days ago 10Hi Helen,
I took a better look at Ella Design too and, honestly, I can’t figure out what you’re referring to. It’s about as semantic as you can get with HTML5; the has the actual header, the holds the menu, she uses to reference content and apart from a few divs here and there it’s mostly clean.
Sure, it’s not a lot of markup in her pages, but still, I think it’s a long way from suffering of divitis, at least that’s how I see it.
Radu
Posted 691 days ago 8Great roundup, Andy; though one should point to the HTML5 Gallery at http://html5gallery.com/ where you can see a bunch more.
From the “shameless self promotion” archives, you guys might want to check out my blog, Sickdesigner.com . It’s created using HTML5 and CSS3 plus a bit of a crazy idea I head about tags being super semantic.
I’ve written a post about it too, you can read it here: http://sickdesigner.com/index.php/2010/html-css/truly-semantic-tags-and-html5/
Rich Clark
Posted 686 days ago 19@Radu Thanks for the mention of http://html5gallery.com I wondered if anyone else would spot the fact that all of these sites have been featured on there recently.
To the post author, a link would be much appreciated to note where you found these sites. At least you’ve looked at all the sites and written your own notes about them unless some other blogs I don’t care to mention ;)
Ta
Rich
Duane
Posted 692 days ago 7Great stuff. Thanks very much for this.
.-= Duane´s last blog ..13 Must Follow Logo and Brand Identity Design Blogs =-.
Omer Greenwald
Posted 692 days ago 6catcubed and ousmane-ndiaye are awesome! thanks for sharing
.-= Omer Greenwald´s last blog ..4 Reasons Why Web Developers Should Have Photoshop Skills Beyond Slicing =-.
Pim Derks
Posted 693 days ago 5@natalia – most of the sites use the new HTML5 elements like , , . Some of them also use other features like the placeholder-attribute in an input-field.
Jim Saunders
Posted 691 days ago 12The fact that this list does not mention Bruce Lawson is a bit of a joke, considering he’s been one of the few pushing this since the very beginning. I’d be willing to bet that most of the people on this list hadn’t even heard of html5 when he was converting his code over during one of his many experiments.
Intact, come to think on it, I don’t see any of the html5doctors websites up there?
DesignTutr
Posted 693 days ago 4Great list here, I’m really liking what will soon be possible with HTML5 and CSS3, we just have to wait for certain browsers to catch up before we will start seeing more and more HTML5 an CSS3 love.
.-= DesignTutr´s last blog ..Use Custom Brushes to Create a Pixel Art Poster =-.
Pim Derks
Posted 693 days ago 3Some very nice examples. The combination of HTML5 + CSS3 + a bit of Javascript/jQuery is amazingly powerful. Shame we can’t use it’s full potential yet because of IE8 still not supporting any CSS3 modules – though apparently IE9 will! :)
BBL
Posted 693 days ago 2Great collection
thanks for sharing
.-= BBL´s last blog ..20 Beautiful City Lights at Night Photography =-.
Natalia Ventre
Posted 693 days ago 1Can you point out which HTML5 features are these sites using? The transparency in rgba color mode and the CSS3 transitions are pretty easy to spot, but they’re CSS3 features, not HTML5.
.-= Natalia Ventre´s last blog ..Contact =-.
Rich Clark
Posted 686 days ago 20See http://html5gallery.com ALL these sites are featured on there with the content you’re after.