Editor’s note: This post was originally published on 8/31/16 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehension.
This is the second blog in a series of articles covering web design.
Catch the full 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 welcome 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 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.
Brave People CTA
The home page beautifully ties together the graphics, typography and images to demonstrate a consistent message.
Brave People Home Page Messaging
The home page uses lots of white space, which makes the page easy to read and demonstrates good visual hierarchy.
Brave People White Space
Reward Expert Home Page
The text and images are clear and the message for users is targeted.
Reward Expert Services
The second section of the website clearly defines the services Reward Expert offers.
Reward Expert Rewards Programs
On the homepage, Reward Expert offers three tools to help users find rewards, based on their activity. The design easily segments and defines the tools using color and icons.
Red Bull TV Home Page
The visuals in this website design are simply stunning and top-notch quality.
Red Bull’s Stunny Images
It uses clear CTAs, making it easy for the user to know what they need to do.
Red Bull’s CTAs
It uses visuals in a great way – to differentiate the content while adding to the visual impact.
Red Bull’s Visual Impact
OARS Home Page
It has tons of beautiful imagery. Need we say more?
OARS Imagery
The typography is consistent and playful.
OARS Typography
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.
OARS White Space
April Home Page
The style is clean and simple, following the “less is more” principle.
April’s Less Is More Philosophy
It has great use of color for hovering effects and differentiating elements.
April’s Hover Capabilities
The text weight indicates what’s important, helping to provide a good sense of visual hierarchy.
April’s Visual Hierarchy
Tourisme Charlevoix Home Page
The home page changes based on the season. Brilliant!
Tourisme Charlevoix Seasonal Options
The images speak for themselves, helping to give the words on the page oomph.
Tourisme Charlevoix Images
The page offers social proof. Instead of talking about themselves, Charlevoix relies on others to share their experience on social media.
Tourisme Charlevoix Social Proof
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 design should use between two to three typefaces to maintain a clean look.
Our Calling White Space and Typeface
The page provides good contrast between key elements.
Our Calling Contrast
The CTAs are carefully placed to balance the content.
Our Calling CTAs
Snake River Interiors Home Page
It has beautiful use of white space on the page, so there’s lots of breathing room throughout elements.
Snake River Interiors White Space
It depends more on images than text to tell the story, which is ideal for this interior design brand.
Snake River Visuals Tell The Story
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.
Caption: Snake River Interiors Contemporary Feel
Visit Atikokan Home Page
The visual hierarchy is spot-on: The page clearly identifies the most important ideas at the top and then, in descending order.
Visit Atikokan Hierarchy
The images and graphics directly relate to the adventurous subject of the site.
Visit Atikokan Adventurous Branding
It uses a bold and engaging color palette, it uses nature as inspiration (yellow for sun, blue for water, brown for earth). It also uses bold tones of these colors to provide contrast between the elements and maintain the visual hierarchy.
Visit Atikokan Bold Colors Provide Contrast and Maintain 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.
Unata Color Directs Users
The hovering effects and animations are subtle and informative. Without overwhelming the user with animations, they provide interest while helping to grow users’ knowledge.
Unata Animations
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.
