Folkert Gorter, who is one of the web’s top designers, has collaborated with filmmaker Rene Daalder, recently launching the beautifully-designed and thought-provoking ideas community Space Collective.

I remember getting er…geeked about this site after seeing the hypnotic, gorgeous animation on Folkert’s site. I thought it would be a private community for astronauts or something, but am pleasantly surprised by the outcome. The old standby and poorly executed Space.com doesn’t really excite me in any way, but Space Collective stimulates the imagination and educates the mind.

Described simply as a “cross-media information and entertainment channel for post-ideological, non-partisan, forward thinking terrestrials,” it is rife with visionary conceptualists and projects, promising to serve as a launch-pad for progressive ideation and research.

Projects:

Looks like most of the projects are being run by universities, a smart move as they will continue to feed data down the pipeline and keep the contribution quality up. They also offer public ‘projects’ as well, so dust off your old concepts.

Time Capsules:

Time Capsules are a good alternative to the standard profile found on most community sites. They offer a way to collect media in a blog-like fashion, though never either feeling completely like a blog or a profile.

Gallery:

The image galleries are elegant in their uniqueness, with minimalist iconography, though I’d say as much as I like it, the icons will be a bit too subtle for some users. I assume SC is aiming at a ‘netric’ audience.

User Experience:

Though I haven’t completely delved deep into the site, there are some positive initial ‘experience’ reactions. From a UI (user interface) standpoint, I love how the videos have accompanying text, even including footage source and scrollable chapters. The AJAX is responsive and well-implemented, making the experience richer, not just providing iCandy, but serving a utilitarian purpose. The design team thought through every detail at the microscopic level.

Of course, one would expect no less than stunning design and UI from one of the web’s top cadre of professionals as Folkert has assembled here. The interactions are elegant, moving us through the different areas of the site and circulating us continually towards new content and articles. Even though I omitted this from my 2007 “Best Of” list, I’ll include it in the ‘08 version, since it essentially will “come up” this year. Brilliant work. This is as good as it gets on the World Wide Web.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 8:24 am and is filed under Design, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.