Gone are the days when a chunk of black text on a white background made a website. Now, a functional, aesthetically pleasing, and user-friendly website is the way to go, if you want your business to stand out!
If you are stuck on what needs to change about your website, or you are looking for inspiration to build a new website, looking at the best of the best is an excellent way to get the creativity flowing. With an arsenal packed with great ideas and a vision, you can have a stunning website too!
Thanks to sites like CSS Awards, Awwwards, and Webby Awards we can bring you these 21 Award-Winning websites that are sure to gear you in the right direction.
1. ESPN Sports Programming
When you load ESPN’ Sports programming website, you are met with the ESPN logo and bold white font. Behind it, is a compilation video of all of the sports that ESPN broadcasts, showcasing their genre and the high energy of the industry to the site’s visitors.
Below that intro are large buttons that are labeled with different sports and topics that you can learn more about when you click them. What is most amazing about ESPN’s website, is the sports calendar which keeps visitors up to date on what’s happening and when.
2. Montage
Montage’s website is beautiful and easy to use, and it advertises its products well. The homepage is simple and describes exactly what they offer, without having to dig through many pages of information. Their testimonials are also on the homepage, which makes it easier for you to find other customer reviews before you buy. Their sticky menus are also easy to navigate, making it easier to find what you are looking for throughout the website.
3. Zillow
When you click on Zillow’s website, it is comfortable and intuitive. As soon as you enter the site, you can place your desired location and the website asks you whether you want to rent or buy.
Your selection caters the search result to exactly what you want and it is hassle-free. This sleek design uses predominantly blue and white and holds a sleek modern design, with plenty of white space, and well-described buttons that take you to each corner of the website.
4. Revols
Revols’ website is striking, with its in your face, close up of their headphones and bold words describing their product. Revols uses a black and white well, making a sleek website which like many others, carries its information in strips that are palatable to the eye. The video immediately below the landing image quickly immerses you into the product.
5. Black Negative
This fascinating website has an intricate design. Its dark background is reminiscent of the dark mode that we currently enjoy now.
The navigation bar is completely different to normal pages, being at the bottom of the screen and the movement page to another happens with a click on a highlighted section of the bar or from swiping across the screen.
The unique design uses high definition photos to tell a visitor about who they are and what they do and each smooth transition of the website uncovers videos and other imagery that showcase their work.
6. Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley’s website uses strips to distribute their information and follow a blue, grey, and white color scheme. This website is easy to navigate, with its homepage carrying vital information about the company. The blog and additional information are easy to find near the bottom of the page.
7. Boosted
Boosted is among the most well-known names in skateboards, and they are sure to stay that way with their creative designs and excellent user experience. Their website followed in their product’s footsteps. As soon as you land on the page, you see the products they sell and as you scroll down their homepages, images of young people skating catch your eye.
Their homepage is predominated by images being used as buttons that lead to each skateboard or so it is easy to find the skateboard you want and buy. Their navigation bar also holds access to the most important information on the website, accessible by only a click!
8. Wozber
Wozber gets straight to the point, introducing the website and its purpose right away so that you never have to second guess what it is all about.
The home page justifies why their resume builder is a good option and gives plenty of samples for you to choose from before you build your resume. They also have step-by-step guides available around the website for users to access when they are building their resumes. Its design is straightforward and flows well from topic to topic and its information is well organized!
9. Opus Grows
Opus Grow’s theme follows the purpose of the website well. Opus fills each page with images of potting soil and plants, giving the platform and earth feel and curiosity to dig deeper.
The homepage starts with a large picture of potted plants and immediately guides users to the online store with a shop online button. Opus Grows also hosts a blog, through which they post relevant content for their customers.
10. Zero Financial
Zero financial does what many other companies selling products don’t do. They have images of their product all throughout their page with adequate descriptions next to them.
They use simple and clean images to send their message. Their website is not cluttered and gets straight to the point of what is on offer. However, it is not sparse on the insightful details either.
Their website is perfect for inspiration, so if you are looking for creative ways to add images to your website, you can take a look at Zero Financial.
11. Cap HPI
This delightfully refreshing website is a place for visitors to find automotive data. Cap HPI’s design follows many other modern sites with the information distributed in strips. It also has a unique color scheme that is easy on the eyes.
The darker colors draw your eyes to the places of emphasis, while the others fill in the subtle animations, illustrations, and icons. This helps separate each section into bite-sized bits of information. You can easily find what you are looking for making it a beautiful and effective website.
12. Paper Planes
Paper Planes is a simple and beautiful website with its focus on the video in the center. The website encourages visitors to use their phones to throw virtual paper planes from one person to another and it executes this message well.
When you enter the website, you are immersed in cool and calming music and a rotating pink and blue globe. Paper planes are dancing across the screen and text tells the purpose of the website. In the bottom right corner, you are prompted to use your phone to connect and throw an airplane.
13. Wordstack
Wordstacks’s website design is small and condensed, keeping all the attention on the landing page with the tools laid out for visitors to read. This website is dedicated to advertising their project management tools and does it well.
Wordstack follows a pink and purple theme and has a simplistic design, with enough information to inform without overwhelming visitors.
14. Campos Coffee
Campos coffee has a modern earthy feel with a clear purpose. On the landing page, you are met with an image that directly talks about the purpose of the website. The image is that of a box of coffee at a door, which lets the visitor know what Campos Coffee is about.
This website design follows the simplistic trend, with an excellent text to image ratio. Throughout the website a story is told, expressing the time and care that they put into crafting their product and the standard to which they deliver.
15. Kin
With its large Serif font and interesting color scheme, Kin tells its visitors how it will help them as soon as you load the homepage. This website design uses dark colors well and blends them into a beautiful page.
Kin carries many screenshots of its products and describes what it does on the front page with minimal text. The testimonial near the bottom of the first page confirms readers of their value and brings this sophisticated website together.
16. SeaStreak
This organized website design works well with the purpose of the website; to showcase ferry routes and schedules. SeaStreaks interesting navigation using drop-down menus, show you all the available options for your ferry trip. There are day trip and getaway menus, if that what you are looking for or you can stick to the normal routes and schedules
These elements create a convenient user experience, so they aren’t left in a dark hole of the site, completely unable to find what they want.
17. Simply Chocolate
From the get-go, Simply Chocolate’s website catches your eye with a large white font nestled on top of a video. When you scroll down, a delicious looking chocolate bar is revealed, and with just that a desire to try this chocolate was created.
Each chocolate bar pops out of the screen as you scroll down the page. When you click each chocolate, the wrapper is animated to tear off and it reveals the chocolate beneath. Behind the images sits all of the nutritional facts. This fun design is a great idea for revamping as you consider selling your edible products on your website.
18. The Frans Hals Museum
The Frans Hals Museum uses exhibit photography and digital design elements to carry you along a journey. With its multiple colors and varieties of artwork, this website is not as aimless it may come across.
It guides visitors through the site, mimicking the experience they’ll have during a visit to the museum in person. This combination of information and immersion is astounding and it also effectively promotes the museum’s Instagram account.
19. WealthSimple
This chic website uses white space to its advantage to create an impactful experience, boldly promising visitor financial success.
The page carries a nude pastel color and boasts smooth animations as your scroll down the page. Each animation highlights the selling points of the product and further validates its cause at the bottom of the homepage by listing awards and reviews from trustworthy sources.
20. Toggl
This stunning website uses ice cream and other delicious sweet treats to draw you into the site and explain their product. With a purple and cream, this website is very aesthetically pleasing and comfortable to use.
The pages are lively with satisfying videos running in the backdrop of every page, while a bold white font tells us the purpose of the site.
21. Shademaster
Shademaster welcomes you with a crisp and clear hero image and a pop-up message assisting visitors. When you scroll down the homepage, each category hovers center screen, like a watermark, while a brief description sits below.
The type of work they did into roof designs segmented in the navigation bar which takes the user to individual pages where they can plan their ideal roof and receive a quote. This approach is completely autonomous, so there is no need for someone to come to your home to get the process started.
Your website is the face of your brand and it is imperative that you take the time out to focus on how best it can sell your product or service. It should be easy to navigate, have a great image to text ratio, and flow in a way that is natural to users.
If you think it’s time to make a big change to your website, these 21 websites are a great start when you are looking for some inspiration or creative ways to rebuild your website. IMPACT loves to work with others to build websites that are optimized for user experience, and we build a strategy suit to the needs of the website.
Interested in taking the plunge? Reach out to see how we can help you create an impeccable web design for your business.
