Jakob Nielsen has announced the winners of (his?) 2008 best application UIs. I didn’t see any info on how/who judged this.

Many winners employ dashboards to give users a single overview of complex information and use lightboxes to ensure that users notice dialogs. Also, the Office 2007 ribbon showed surprisingly strong early adoption. Read more…

A couple of interesting things: He mentions the “lightbox” technique which he calls the “technique of the year” although it’s been around since at least 2006. I agree this is a great way to call attention to a modal dialog.

Also, the famously utilitarian Jakob surprisingly gives a nod to “Emotional Design.”

There’s aren’t links to the apps (poor usability Jakob) but most can be found through google.