What is it?

Patterntap is a site that allows you to easily browse a collection of the “best interface designs on the Web”. It allows you to save images to a gallery to use for design inspiration at a later stage.

The excellent thing about the site is that (after you've registered) you can also browse other users' galleries and add what you find to your own collection. If you find users whose collections particularly impress you, you can follow them through a dedicated RSS feed.

Why I like it?

Simplicity in design - The site provides simplicity in design with an adequate use of white space - the designer didn't try to cram everything above the fold on the home page as others often do - and offers a nice clean grid system (ads appear unobtrusively on the right hand side).

Simplicity in features - They've avoided throwing everything but the kitchen sink into this project. I see inspirational stuff - I save it to view later - simple.

Other “cool things” about the site

• There's a very intuitive process for adding an image to your group using jquery (read Smashing Magazine’s cool article on jquery).
• I love the green bar at the top of the page explaining what each page is about and how it works. This can be closed to allow for more space to view the galleries should you choose.
• There is a “list view” option for the gallery which can save a lot of time you would spend on scrolling.
• The copy is witty, relevant and not annoying.

And finally an interesting recent development allows us to add our own designs. This feature is moderated, which is reasonable given the potential for people to abuse the system for self promotion.

Go check out the site yourself and let me know if you found it useful!