Ian Landsman is Starting From Scratch, January 5, 2007:
Best Web Application UI You’ve Seen?
If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Help Desk solution, please take a look at my company's flagship product HelpSpot.
I’m currently planning out the UI improvements for HelpSpot v2 and while I have a bunch that are on the list I’m always looking for good ideas. There’s so much out there about good website design and UI but almost nothing about web application UI. I think people think website UI is the same thing as web application UI, but those people be wrong! So have you used any apps which are really spiffy lately? A specific UI element that really wow’d you. Note that I’m looking for elements that are practical not just “cool”.
Discussion
You probably know about this already, but just in case you don't:
Lazlo and OpenLazlo --
http://www.openlaszlo.org/
http://www.laszlosystems.com/
Created by Andrey Butov on 01.06.2007 12:01 am
Hi Ian,
I'm not sure what I would call the best I've seen, but I must say, that I think Google has got it right. Their apps are very responsive, practical, and pleasant looking without being flashy. I have not used Docs and Spreadsheets that much, but the little I have is impressive. One of the many cool things in GMail is being able to Ctrl or Shift + Click to select multiple list items - exactly like desktop apps.
Let me just add that I am a regular reader of your blog, but have not used HelpSpot at all, as I currently have no need for it, so I cannot comment on what I think would need improving. Maybe you already have ctrl/shift + click functionality? 
All the best,
Lesley Dean.
Created by Lesley Dean on 01.06.2007 5:55 am
Thanks for the links Andrey, not planning on moving to flash though.
HelpSpot does have keyboard commands, but no ctrl click right now. On the other hand I'm not sure if you'd need that like you would in email. Adding more functionality to the keyboard commands though is definetly something I'm going to be looking at.
Created by Ian on 01.06.2007 9:13 am
Can you point out some of the applications or platforms that had the most influence on you?
Created by Ilija Studen on 01.06.2007 2:33 pm
You've probably already seen or heard of it, but I recommend checking out the book Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design. It's packed with a ton of great UI ideas.
Created by Jason Berberich on 01.10.2007 10:30 pm
Thanks Jason. I actually have read that book already. It was pretty good, there needs to be a lot more books on this subject or perhaps a really great wiki.
Created by Ian on 01.10.2007 10:37 pm