This is the second blog in a series of articles covering web design for motivational speakers and authors.
Catch the series here:
Top 10 Best Designed Websites in 2016 (Part 1)
Best Designed Websites: The Home Page (Part 2)
Best Designed Websites: The About Page (Part 3)
Best Designed Websites: The Services Page (Part 4)
Best Designed Websites: The Blog Page (Part 5)
Best Designed Websites: The Navigation/Menu (Part 6)
Best Designed Websites: Why Growth Matters (Part 7)
Think of your home page like a welcoming mat.
It’s where visitors will land from paid ads, a social media link, or a guest post.
So what does your home page say about your speaking brand?
In this second article in our “Best Designed Website” series, we’re going to focus on the home page. (In the last article, we discussed good website design in general.)
Below are 10 websites that are absolutely crushing it with their beautifully designed home pages.
Brave People Home Page
Notice how the home page uses a great call-to-action (CTA): It tells the user exactly what to do – Hire us! At the same time, the CTA is subtle and not intimidating for the user.
The home page beautifully ties together the graphics, typography and images to demonstrate a consistent message.
The home page uses lots of white space, which makes the page easy to read and demonstrates good visual hierarchy.
Reward Expert Home Page
The graphics are fun, yet at the same time, very informative.
The primary CTA follows the user no matter where he goes on the page– making it accessible at all times.
The page’s animations enhance the design (they don’t take it over).
Red Bull TV Home Page
The visuals are simply stunning and top-notch quality.
It uses clear CTAs, making it easy for the user to know what they need to do.
It uses color in a great way – to differentiate the content while adding to the visual impact.
OARS Home Page
It has tons of beautiful imagery. Need we say more?
The typography is consistent and playful.
It employs good use of white space and padding between elements, providing just enough spacing so that the page is easy for users to read and make sense of. 
April Home Page
The style is clean and simple, following the “less is more” principle.
It has great use of color for hovering effects and differentiating elements.
The text weight indicates what’s important, helping to provide a good sense of visual hierarchy.
Tourisme Charlevoix Home Page
The home page changes based on season. Brilliant!
The images speak for themselves, helping to give the words on the page oomph.
The page offers social proof. Instead of talking about themselves, Charlevoix relies on others to share their experience on social media.
Our Calling Home Page
The typography is clean, simple and fresh. There’s lots of space between each line and the page employs two typefaces. As a rule of thumb, a website should use between two to three typefaces to maintain a clean look.
The page provides a good contrast between key elements.
The CTAs are carefully placed to balance the content.
Snake River Interiors Home Page
It has beautiful use of white space on the page, so there’s lots of breathing room throughout elements.
It depends more on images than text to tell the story, which is ideal for this interior design brand.
It features a contemporary play with typography that is very well executed and consistent. Each heading maintains this contemporary look and feel – keeping in line with the rest of the page. This typographic treatment is out of the ordinary; however, it’s easy for the user to read and interact with.
Each heading maintains this contemporary look and feel – keeping in line with the rest of the page.
This typographic treatment is out of the ordinary; however, it’s easy for the user to read and interact with.
Visit Atikokan Home Page
The visual hierarchy is spot-on: The page clearly identifies the most important ideas at the top and then in a descending order.
The images and graphics directly relate to the adventurous subject of the site.
It uses a bold and engaging color palette. The color palette uses nature as inspiration (yellow for sun, blue for water, brown for earth). It is uses bold tones of these colors to provide contrast between the elements and maintain visual hierarchy.
It is uses bold tones of these colors to provide contrast between the elements and maintain visual hierarchy.
Unata Home Page
The colors, images and sections help to clearly define each section, giving the reader a distinct visual path to experience the website.
The color helps distinguish important information from the less-important content.
The hovering effects and animations are subtle and informative. Without overwhelming the user with animations, they provide interest while helping to grow users’ knowledge.
The use of text is minimal and really easy to read, which will drive a good user experience while balancing the business’ desire to engage the audience.
This page section uses an “F” pattern to structure the content in this screenshot. The “f shape” is the way users typically scan for content on a page, working their way across the top, then down the left side, then across the middle.
Website design improves the user’s experience, welcoming them to your website and getting them to hang around. Clean text, a clear call to action and great use of images and color are sure to please your audience.
What’s your biggest website design challenge? Share in the comments below!
Keep watching for new articles in this website design series. Next up: We’ll highlight the best About Us pages. So stay tuned!
