"according to their web site, the state of Alabama doesn't have any upcoming events."

That's really more of a data issue, don't you think? I mean, you can't really fault the designer if they hand over a site and the person responsible for entering events falls down on the job.

"Delaware has the joint worst tag line for "It's good being first." And why would that be exactly?"

Delaware was the first state to ratify the US Constitution (although this fact does nothing to answer your question, nor does it make me want to spend tourism dollars there).

An interesting browse. Actually I'm really surprised by the generally high visual standard - light years ahead of anything in the UK. Take this really stale example for Somerset in the South West of England - http://www.somerset.gov.uk/celebratingsomerset/.

This has got to be my favorite design-based blog entry ever. Don't stop with states, please.

Honestly, I wish people would stop talking about rounded CSS borders or font families and actually DIG INTO the real web like you did here, instead of their own imagined fairytales of accessibility and good design.

Congrats.

Wow the NY website sucks

I like this a lot! Even though I'm biased since I live in NC, I've always loved their state website, especially since there are several different background images you can see, and they're all very well done.

As part of the team that built the Kentucky Tourism site (HTML, CSS, and non .NET generated JavaScript were my contribution), I'm pleased to see it so well received.

Of course, the grain of salt is that this is just one person's opinion, but we at least pleased one person out there in cyberspace. :-)

Can the residents of Washington, DC get any representation for the DC tourism website here? We don't have representation in Congress (sadly taxation without representation still exists), so it would be nice to get some love here.

New York's is bad...I agree. I am not sure who did it but it's either gone to the lowest bidder (an outside vendor) or else it was done by someone paid by the state. Nuff said.
I enjoy doing this with college/university websites since I am paying out all that money.

Brilliant work, made me think of doing something equal for Germany, but after checking some results...
- http://www.bayern.de/
- http://www.hessen.de/
- http://www.berlin.de/
- http://www.niedersachsen.de/

I loved looking at these opinions. Although, I must give kudos to the Alabama site, they have updated the one fault that bumped them from the "best". Tons of upcoming events, makes me want to be a tourist at home!

The residents of Washington, DC are going to be sad to know that I would put their tourism website at the bottom of the list as well.

The search bar that runs at the top, as a first impression, destroys the rest of the site visually.

The very fast flash entrance to the main navigation (I blinked and missed it, so I was forced to reload to see what it said) needs to be put on Ritalin.

DC has so many beautiful monuments, museums, streetscapes, but can you tell that by their picture choice?

I stopped there, not because I wanted to, but because past that, there is not much going on.

I don't mean to step on your toes, but this is an opinion-based forum.

You should do one with countries.. Here is my country, Turkey!

Your screenshot of Utah is not current. Try again!

What about Washington, DC?????

You want to see some scary web design? Look at the state library websites or their Department of Education websites. I interned for a state government doing web design and you would not believe the red tape, and the wrong people making design decisions that web designers encounter when working for State agencies.

Yeah, it was fall here in Ohio weatherwise until about 2 days ago.

NY really needs to redesign theirs. Come on....it's NY!

Rhode Island Tourism just moved their offices, servers, and whatnot, and have had problems all week. Haven't seen the site, but hopefully once it's back up, you'll post it.

Thanks for taking such time to do this analysis. Interesting to see all the states sites at once along with comments. I would like to say, not sure with other states but I know with Indiana's website, it is a pay-to-play concept. So, not all events, attractions or other info is included for all cities unless they ante up. I'm glad I happened across your blog.

This article stinks. It doesn't take into account the different requirements any state may be given to design a site.

Sometimes sites are developed by high end design firms that are only interested in the bottom line. And the specifications are being given by persons that may not understand the internet.

Unfortunately the end user is normally the person that has to suffer bureaucratic design decisions. What an internet we could have if all development was left up to the design professionals and usability experts.

Did you even run any accessibility tests on any of these sites?

Your favorite site is loaded with tables and the styles are all embedded. Wouldn’t it be more proficient to use linked styles and positioning. I also don’t understand why you say Cali has a good site with a huge Flash block on the main page used only for “sparkle” yet other sites that employ Flash as a data element are Ho Hum.

Perhaps you should go back and look at these sites again from a development point of view.

Ohio has redesigned theirs - much different now.

http://consumer.discoverohio.com/

Being from Colorado, it pains me to say it, but I have to admit that I think I like the Texas site the best. Nice clean layout, mellow colors, responsible use of Flash, and the most responsible use of inline javascript of all those top tier websites you list. Nice work Texas!

A novel idea that is getting attention from every state tourism office today. Your opinions are generating lots of questions and discussion. That is an excellent thing even if people disgree with your views.

Nevada is in the process of launching a new site - look for it in the next 30 days - i think you will be impressed.

Don't forget your Canadian neighbors! Starting on the west coast here is Vancouver's website: www.tourismvancouver.com. Welcome any feedback.

Unfortunately Utah's government information site rather than its consumer site (utah.com) was used for comparison in this overview. The state tourism office in Utah also has utah.travel.

NY and Wisconsin's are the worst. That's too bad because I'm from Milwaukee :(.

Ohio launched there new site the same day you reviewed. google probably hadn't indexed the new site yet.

These sights are big commercials...when I want to learn about a place I want real information...sights like Sogonow.com or tripadvisor.com offer more real and useful content

What did you like about Kentucky's site? I didn't see your comments listed under the screen capture, as they are for the other sites. (I like it too)

Interesting article! I'd love to see one done for the Canadian provinces and territories, seeing as we share the same continent, and we're competing for a lot of the same tourism dollars.

Do you have a clue how State Tourism sites are built?

Do you realize that every state has a different Budget?

And by the looks of how you ranked the States it looks like those that ranked well are those with lots of $$.

Get the facts before you hammer on these different States that do with what they can afford.

This is an excellent case study and a good example of first impressions. A place, person, or company’s website definitely reflects upon them and can make or break a decision upon choosing their service.

Great idea!!

Would love to see a comparison of cities like you did with the state tourism sites. Other types of categories would be interesting, too (like newspapers, for example).

Here's two losers from my neck of the woods:

http://www.norfolk.gov

http://www.dailypress.com

I really enjoyed this idea and article so much that I decided to do the same to my home country, Australia!

Which Australian State Would You Visit

Christian,

While I don't think the new Kentucky Tourism site has been live long enough for the Department of Tourism to see if the revenue dollars generated by the new design make for a significant ROI, I can speak from personal experience about the allure of the designs. While getting ready for this project, the Kentucky.gov team visited every state tourism site, noting what we loved about it, and what we hated, and whether the site's design was the best way to market the state as a product. Personally speaking, the state's w/ the "cooler" sites were the ones that I wanted to go and visit. Now whether that translates into me dropping my tourist dollars in their laps is another thing, but it did do something in setting them apart from the pack in my mind. So, there's some feedback from a focus group of one person. :-)

Also, for what it's worth, our assessment of state tourism sites pretty much paralleled yours. However our particular favorite was the North Carolina site, and we were a little more impressed w/ the Georgia site than you were and considered it one of the top sites.

Thanks for such a comprehensive overview. Had this article come out before we started the Kentucky site, you could have saved us a LOT of Googling. :-)

Very nice analysis, i think there arent so much bad cases, some designs are very attractives!

Great blog, one more reader =)