StumbleUpon

One of my favorite sites is StumbleUpon. I enjoy this site for its ability to educate while entertaining, but what really makes the site is the design; it is simple, clean and user friendly. StumbleUpon is the ultimate cure to boredom. It is a “discovery engine” that searches topics you are interested in. It’s like browsing the web, but only for things you enjoy.

How does it work? You first create an account, which can be linked to your Facebook. This allows you to interact with friends and see other people’s interests. Next, you select topics you like, which include everything from humor, travel, blogs, movies, health and many more. Once this is done, you are ready to begin stumbling.

When you enter your account, you will see a “StumbleBar” at the top. The StumbleBar is everything you need to navigate through the site. It includes the Stumble Button, which acts as a next button, and a thumbs up/thumbs down button which allows you to rate the page. By using these buttons, StumbleUpon can better understand your interests and give you better search results.

Also, in the StumbleBar you can click the star to add the page you are viewing to a list, that way it saves as a bookmark. Next to the star is a share button, which allows you to share with Twitter, Facebook and other stumblers. The activity tab allows you to stumble through a specific interest, channel or mode. Here you can change your search categories to all interests, activity, trending, photos and videos. This is also where you can view and add more interests. At the top right is a bell icon, this is where you can view shares and other activity. By clicking this, a sidebar will pop up on the right allowing you to view your notifications. To browse your likes and adjust your settings, you can click your avatar next to the bell. This will bring up a display of help, settings, sign out, add a page, add interests, my friends, my lists and my likes.

Although these are all great features, what truly makes this page is the ability to add specific interests. Being able to add interests creates a personalized account. This means no two people will have the exact same account. You can also stumble a specific interest, or mix and match new interests. All of these tools combined create a great website and experience for the user.