I critiqued a whole bunch of web 2.0 sites on a combination of design and usability aspects, placing more importance on the usability aspect. I tried to focus more on sites that provide a good community oriented experience, designs that encourage people to participate. After all, that’s the staple of what “web 2.0″ is.

The final result is 10 sites that I feel are the best combination of both good design and usability. The list is in no particular order. 

1) Cork’d – I absolutely love Cork’d. If I had to pick one of the sites on the list that I like the most this would probably be it. I love everything from the rich color shemes to the fun illustrations. The design is both classy and fun at the same time. Not only is the site one of the best looking, it’s also very user friendly. I instantly know what the site is about and how to use it. Cals to action are very clear. Congrats to Tundro (which I also love) on a great job.

2) Newsvine – Newsvine is a social news site, a place to read, write, discuss, and share news. Green is a hard color to design with, but Newsvine has done a fantastic job. It looks great with the grey/silver color combinations. Newsvine is easy to navigate. Most news sites place the main navigation on the left, Newsvine placed it on top. This makes it easy to see all the different sections at the same time. They’ve also done a great job bringing out the content.

3) digg – Another one of my favorites. Not only is digg one of my favorite designs, it’s one of my favorite sites period. digg’s design does a great job at encouraging user participation. The content is clearly defined and each news story is seperated cleanly. Everything of importance really stands out. The only thing I would change on digg’s homepage is moving the category navigation above the friends’ activity, I think category navigation is more important. Digg was redesigned in September of 2005 by the guys at silverorange.

4) Blurb – Blurb offers book publishing software so anyone can create and design a book. They’ve really done a great job with the design, it’s very captivating. It’s easy to tell what the site is about from any page you’re on.. The content really stands out against the rich background and the typography is outstanding. You would think that maroon, orange, green, blue, and yellow would be a very tough color scheme to work with, but they managed to make it look great.

5) FireFox – I think this is actually the third post in a row that I’ve mentioned FireFox. I can’t help, they just do so many things right. Is there a website that does a better job of explaining the product and giving a clear call to action?

6) 9rules – 9rules is a blog network that’s all about community. The site is all about the content and they’ve done a great job bringing it out and making it very accessible. They’ve accomplished the lofty goals of featuring member content and getting people to read deeper into the community. The community sections page is also very well done, everything from the clearly defined categories to the favicons which really gives the page some flavor.

7) Snap – Snap offers a new, different way to search. They have a very clean homepage and yet it looks great. What I really like are the interior pages, specifically, the search results. It’s laid out in two columns. The search results are on the left. On the right side is a window where it displays the site when you click on the results. You can actually navigate through the site in that window as well, or click a link to open the site in a full window. I like this a lot but I know there’s a lot of people that don’t, it seems you either love it or hate it.

Simply Hired – Simply Hired is simply easy to use. The bright colors used in combination make for a fun color scheme. The home page is super simple to use, it’s fool proof, Google style.

9) Blogger – Who would’ve though Blogger, a Google product, would ever make a list for best web designs? I guess with Doug Bowman and Adaptive Path being a part of it that should come as no surprise. They’ve actually really done a nice job with it. Vey clean, fun, and user friendly. If it’s my first time on the site I know exactly what they’re about and how to complete any given task. Searching for blogs is simple and they’ve done a good job of displaying the results.

10) Pandora – I was a little torn on adding Pandora to the list. They don’t have the best looking site, but then again it’s not bad. What I love about the site, besides the actual product itself, is how usable it is, and I can do it all right on one page.

What are some of your favorites?