404 pages are inevitable – visitors may type in an address incorrectly, your site may be linked to with a typo or you may simply forget to redirect every page on your domain if you launch a new site. These things happen.

 

But when it does happen, it doesn’t have to be a miserable experience for the visitor. You can help them get to where they want to be with links to your content, and with a search box, but you can also cheer them up by doing something a bit different, and by having an error page that isn’t overly formal.

 

We’ve selected a showcase of sites that do just that – these sites have livened up their 404 pages so that even when you’re lost, you’re still in a good mood.

 

Mozilla

Source:

 

GitHub

Source: https://github.com/404

 

Lockerz

Source:

 

Skitch

Source: http://skitch.com/404

 

Google Wave

Source: http://wave.google.com/maintenance/index.html

 

Blippy

Source:

 

Nosh.me

Source: http://www.nosh.me/404

 

Dilbert

Source:

 

MailChimp

Source: http://mailchimp.com/404/

 

Grooveshark

Source:

 

VisitSteve.com

Source:

 

Blue Daniel

Source:

 

Angaar

Source: http://angaar.ee/404/

 

EightBit.me

Source:

 

Dribbble

Source: http://dribbble.com/404

Alex writes for UK printing company Print Express, who specialise in custom postcard printing, flyers & business cards. In his spare time he plays with Photoshop and learns to code.