Updated: January 25th, 2010

thumbnail Introduction

If you follow web design at all, you probably see 5 billion top NN posts on a daily basis mentioning site and blog designs, fonts, icons, etc.

However, nobody seems to be paying attention to these little but important guys: comment forms.

If you have an appealing comment box, you are more likely to receive comments (this is based on days of scientific research that I imagined I did in my head) and your content is more likely to be re-shared, voted up, and saved.

I really do feel that way when I visit blogs, especially when an otherwise aesthetically pleasing site has a plain vanilla comment box.

Let's Go

So here we go. I have looked through hundreds of sites to make this collection, go ahead and let me know if you like it (yeah, I know, my comment box is not as spiffy as theirs).

I've also included my notes with the parts that I liked.

1. blog.spoongraphics.co.uk 

http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk 

  • interesting submit button
  • fun background
  • great font
  • grungy
  • border glow
  • normal:

normal

  • focused:

focused

 

2. springydevelopment.co.uk

http://www.springydevelopment.co.uk

  • 2 column
  • wide submit button

 

3. css-tricks.com

http://css-tricks.com

  • Chris Coyier doesn't mess around with crappy designs – his website is superb in general
  • normal:

normal

  • focused:

focused

  • internal disappearing labels
  • dimming labels
  • interesting submit button
  • custom images

 

4. net.tutsplus.com

image

  • tongue:

tongue

  • internal disappearing labels
  • appealing default avatar

 

5. smashingmagazine.com

http://www.smashingmagazine.com

  • simplistic
  • appealing submit button
  • absence of author website – less spam

 

6. branded07.com

http://www.branded07.com

  • fading
  • interesting background

 

7. depcore.com

http://www.depcore.com

  • simplistic
  • unconventional – looks like a pad of paper or a letter
  • contains an anti-spam measure

 

8. marcofolio.net

http://www.marcofolio.net

  • notify/don't notify option (for the first time the design is cohesive – not some random checkbox under the submit button)
  • lots of formatting buttons
  • smilies

 

9. jankoatwarpspeed.com

http://www.jankoatwarpspeed.com

  • handy and appealing formatting buttons
  • flag next to the country – it then shows up next to each commenter, kind of cool:

http://www.jankoatwarpspeed.com flags 

10. dezinerfolio.com

http://www.dezinerfolio.com

  • highlight the field with focus – concentrate attention on one spot
  • large padding
  • by the way, they have an amazing header. I couldn't resist:

http://www.dezinerfolio.com header

 

11. sohtanaka.com

http://www.sohtanaka.com

  • I love it
  • custom submit button
  • hovering quote
  • very polished look

 

12. productivedreams.com

http://www.productivedreams.com

  • the comment box actually sits *above* the comments – a radical, yet interesting approach
  • custom icons
  • really nice custom highlight on hover effect:

http://www.productivedreams.com hover

  • usability and UX at their best

 

13. kevadamson.com

http://www.kevadamson.com

  • grungy, sloppy – looks great!

 

14. line25.com

http://line25.com

  • clean
  • side by side
  • symmetrical, exact
  • I love it

 

15. markforrester.co.za

http://www.markforrester.co.za

  • colorful, crayon-like (though it looks better on the site itself – you need to see it in its natural habitat)
  • internal disappearing labels

 

16. jrvelasco.com

http://www.jrvelasco.com

  • simple, and yet sophisticated

 

17. gizmodo.com

http://gizmodo.com 1

http://gizmodo.com 2

http://gizmodo.com 3

  • very simple from the UX perspective:
    • single line box, without the need to login first
    • expands on focus
    • no need to login even then, unless you want to – just enter your email

 

18. instantshift.com

http://www.instantshift.com

  • this is one of my favorites
  • I love, love, love the way the comments look, especially the way the author ones stand out:

http://www.instantshift.com comments

 

19. koodoz.com.au

http://www.koodoz.com.au

  • internal disappearing labels
  • the design itself, while seemingly not too special, mashes with comment list very well. Check it out – I think the curvy lines are very creative:

http://www.koodoz.com.au comments

 

20. elliotjaystocks.com

http://elliotjaystocks.com

  • click the image – it's bigger than it looks
  • if you can't tell (), the elements are MASSIVE, which makes this comment box pretty unique

 

Conclusion

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So, what did you think? The comment box you're looking for is at the bottom of the page.

● ● ●
Artem Russakovskii is a San Francisco programmer and blogger. Follow Artem on Twitter (@ArtemR) or subscribe to the RSS feed.

In the meantime, if you found this article useful, feel free to buy me a cup of coffee below.