Determining people’s inspiration is a tricky process to pin down. What makes a good film? What defines a good song? Who decides how haircuts should look? Some people love fish, while others hate seafood. Sometimes, people just prefer the familiar. Sometimes, they like what their friends like. Sometimes, they even pretend to enjoy TV shows they never really watch or books they don’t actually read.
A lot of the time, they can’t explain why they like something—they just know they do. There’s no single theory that explains anyone’s taste. It’s always a mix of exposure, culture, and personality.
Taste and preference matter, but great design isn’t just about aesthetics. Factors like user experience, functionality, accessibility, content, innovation, security, and performance also play a crucial role. A website design might look modern but lacks a comfortable interface. Other sites might load quickly, but their aesthetics are poor.
What’s the point of creating a highly visited site if neurodivergent people can’t enjoy it, too? Why should blind people struggle to use affordable airline websites because screen readers don’t work? Would you trust a restaurant’s website design if it lacked testimonials and reviews?
We wonder now, what makes a great website? Like many things in life, balance is key. Thousands of pre-made templates and themes make creating a website design easy, but to stand out in today’s competitive digital industry, you need a well-balanced and unique site.
Read Also: How to Improve Your Website: Proven Methods for Success
Modern Web Design Examples
The best websites do more than just look good; they deliver an easy, secure, and functional user experience. We’ve curated a selection of modern website designs that exemplify these qualities. This collection includes screenshots and links for an interactive look.
Explore our showcase of top modern web design, featuring a quick overview and detailed insights into each example.
GOV.UK is our first choice for modern website design ideas. This is the UK’s public sector information site, designed to centralize access to HM Government services and information, covering areas such as benefits, business, childcare, citizenship, visas, and taxes. Although not visually striking, the site excels in user experience and visual communication with its intuitive navigation, clear forms, and strong organization.
It also features robust accessibility options, including descriptive titles and controls, content resizing up to 200%, enhanced readability, strong color contrast, non-color alternatives for colorblind users, Alt text for images, video subtitles, and keyboard-friendly navigation.
The Goldwin Online Store is our second modern website design example. It provides products for a range of outdoor activities, from city running and yoga to camping, hiking, swimming, and skiing. It stands out for its smooth e-commerce experience, seamlessly blending tradition with innovation. The site is a great example of catalog web design that is pleasant to interact with.
It features a clean layout inspired by Japanese design, with a minimal modern website design that ensures ease of use and clarity, presenting only what users are looking for. Illustrations are used effectively but sparingly, appearing in places like error messages and footers to avoid overwhelming the user while maintaining a connection. The UI design is exemplary, offering inviting navigation and an intuitive user interface, supporting customers in enjoying nature to the fullest.
For insights into a successful website redesign, check out our comprehensive guide.
Simplify project-based hiring, optimize your budget, and accelerate your process. Contra.com’s project calculator employs skeuomorphism, making its UI elements resemble and act like real-world objects. This modern website design approach, combined with bold visuals, results in a unique design experience.
The site features brilliant animations that follow user interactions, unconventional navigation, and full interactivity. It offers both a 3D view and a traditional spreadsheet view, blending innovative design with familiar functionality.
Lera.business is a consultancy offering a broad range of business services, from strategy and product development to marketing, branding, and web development. Their design flows with warm pastel ochre tones and features a brand identity centered around the metaphor of business growth, symbolized by a sunflower.
Bold text, more than double the usual size, is paired with just the right amount of copy. Its modern website design with stunning transitions and micro animations reveals the page as you slide. It guides your reading pattern with scroll-driven effects like fading, color shifts, shape changes, and numbers counting up. Every element creatively aligns with the company’s aim.
Lera.business also works with experts in the creative industries and can connect the target audience with additional services if needed.
This platform is a safe space dedicated to helping women of all ages master real-life experiences. Through events, girl talk, books, and videos, it empowers women to follow their dreams and provides the tools needed to overcome everyday challenges. The website stands out in the non-profit sector for its effectiveness as a branding asset. It seamlessly blends a feminine color scheme with empowering imagery to create a cohesive and inviting experience.
With clever use of testimonials, strong statements, and clear calls to action, it successfully draws in new members and encourages donations. The site features a modern layout, distinguished composition, subscription sliders, and a minimalistic design, making it both healthy-looking and effective.
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Ivy Chen is a fashion and graphic designer based in Vancouver, Canada, with a love for illustration and the fluidity of lines. Her modern website design uses parallax scrolling to showcase her design process, where sketches transform into finished garments. The blend of blurred elements with final designs highlights her creativity and talent, while a smooth, expanding left-hand menu ensures effortless navigation. It’s a striking example of effective design.
Ryan Haskins is a Los Angeles-based creative director and brand designer with experience at Sagmeister & Walsh and Design Army, as well as collaborations with major brands like Google and Netflix. His brutalist design, featuring clashing colors, massive typography, and old-school style GIFs, boldly reflects his playful and audacious brand personality. As in everything, “all is fair in love and war” perfectly sums up his daring design approach.
As of June 2024, Reddit.com ranks 6th globally and 3rd in the US for online services, with 5.46 billion visits, a 3.44% increase from May. The site attracts significant trend traffic from Google (54.47%) and direct visits (38.55%), with 67.92% of users accessing it via mobile devices.
Reddit is a social news aggregation and forum network where users, known as “Redditors,” submit and vote on content organized into “subreddits.” Its design is praised for smooth navigation, modernized forum features, and a dark mode option, ensuring a user-friendly experience. The platform’s well-organized threads and community-driven content enhance its UX, reflecting a high authority score and a robust backlink profile.
Dropbox, headquartered in San Francisco, offers cloud storage, file synchronization, and personal cloud services. The site features a minimal, functional design with eye-catching geometrical shapes and a user-first approach. It effectively showcases what users can accomplish with Dropbox, presenting information in a visually appealing, digestible way while clearly guiding users on what to do next. This design helps users interact dynamically with the site’s features.
One of the most immersive non-profit websites facilitates political change, social movements, and human rights. It uses 360-degree panoramic images, unique stories, and videos to create an exceptional user experience. The site’s stunning 3D mountains, smooth transitions, and interactive maps effectively capture attention and connect users to its cause, encouraging them to become nature protectors with just a few clicks. The cohesive brand and real pictures enhance the storytelling, making it easy for users to get involved.
Designing a Modern Website: Key Principles
In a constantly evolving industry, tackling every aspect that contributes to a good design is no simple task. A well-designed website is not just about aesthetics; it needs to provide an engaging experience that is both safe and functional, among other important attributes.
We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of key elements and best practices that every team should be aware of. Explore our list of best practices for website design, which includes a quick summary followed by an expanded section detailing each aspect.
Learn how to effectively outsource web design to get the best results for your project.
| Practice | Importance |
| Unique and Functional Design | Stand out with distinctive visuals and professional branding. Ensure consistency across all elements. |
| Aesthetic and visual appeal | Crucial for first impression. |
| Strong branding | Builds trust, recognition, and loyalty. |
| User experience | Enhances user satisfaction. |
| Interactive and personalized content | Increases engagement, boosts SEO and strengthens customer relationships. |
| Content management | Keeps your website up-to-date and relevant. |
| Analytics | Provide insights into user behavior, site performance, and areas for improvement. |
| Social interaction and shareability | Expand your reach, foster user engagement, and build social proof. |
| Cutting-edge technology | Improves site performance, user experience, and competitive advantage |
| Security | Vital for protecting user data, maintaining trust, and complying with regulations. |
Signs That a Website Looks Outdated
It might be time to refresh your site. As best practices evolve, maintaining a strong online presence is crucial. Here’s a list of factors affecting performance.
Slow-loading pages can lead to high bounce rates; users expect pages to load within 6 seconds. If over 50% of your visitors are bouncing, address this promptly. With 6.84 billion smartphone users globally, mobile-friendliness is essential. Properly placed call-to-action (CTA) buttons can boost conversion rates by 15% to 20%, and effective UX design can increase conversions by up to 200%. Finally, social media is key—90% of people buy from brands they follow online, so ensure your site is shareable and socially integrated. But what are the signs of an outdated page, and how can we address these? Here are the most common issues and bad practices to watch for:
- Disabled HTTPS: Marked as “not secure” by browsers.
- Outdated Social Media Icons: Signals neglect.
- No Social Media Icons: Limits exposure.
- Old Copyright Dates: Indicates neglect.
- Use of Flash: Unsupported by modern browsers.
- Non-Responsive Design: Poor user experience on mobile devices.
- Slow Loading Times: Harm SEO and user experience.
- Old Content: Decreases relevance and search rankings.
- Outdated URLs: Less SEO-friendly.
- No CTAs: Missed conversion opportunities.
- Inefficient Image Galleries: Slows down the website.
- No Google Analytics: Missed insights.
- 404 Errors: Disrupts user experience and SEO.
- Keyword Stuffing: Leads to SEO penalties.
- Excessive Footer Links: Looks spammy.
- Outdated Software: Indicates an old website.
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Actual Website Designs by Duck Design
Duck Design helped Poke 23 with branding, web design, graphic design, and no-code development. The main goals were to create a distinctive brand identity a visually engaging website, and to establish Poke 23 as a memorable brand in the food industry trends.
The approach involved creating a modern, colorful, and user-friendly design, emphasizing nature and exotic elements. User research and testing were key to refining the design. The redesign led to significant improvements: a 60% increase in brand recognition, a 55% increase in user engagement, and a 30% growth in monthly active users.
Explore our expert UI/UX design services to enhance your site’s user experience.
Overall, the collaboration was highly successful, making Poke 23 stand out in a competitive market. Duck Design’s portfolio includes a wide range of design services, catering to over 400 companies. Key Design Aspects:
- Brand Identity: Minimalistic, bowl-shaped logo.
- Color Palette: Bright, nature-inspired colors.
- Graphic elements & Web Design: Modern visuals with user-friendly interfaces.
- UX/UI Design: User-focused, simple, and iterative design.
Dark Fusion is a breakthrough in App and token development on the Bitcoin network, featuring a product suite that includes a smart contract modeling language (SCL), token standard, wallet, DEX, and Explorer, all built on the Bitcoin protocol via the Lightning Network. Key Design Aspects:
- Brand Identity: Establishing a distinct brand presence for a technical and innovative product.
- UX/UI Design: Creating intuitive interfaces for complex blockchain tools to enhance user experience and accessibility.
Discover the key principles of intuitive UI design to create engaging and user-friendly interfaces.
Ionise is a DeFi protocol on the Zilliqa Chain, enabling users to lend, borrow, and earn yields. The agency provided branding, UX/UI, graphics, and app design to help Ionise create a distinctive brand and user-friendly interface in the competitive DeFi space. Key Design Aspects:
- Brand Identity: Creating a unique brand for a cutting-edge DeFi platform.
- UX/UI Design: Designing intuitive and seamless interfaces for decentralized finance activities.
Duck.Design is an affordable web design company that will help you create a standout design without breaking the bank.
Conclusion
Modern web design balances aesthetics with functionality, user experience, and technological innovation. The key to a successful website design is ensuring it meets current standards while maintaining a unique, engaging presence. And, of course, don’t overlook occasional accessibility checks on your site to ensure that all users can navigate and use it effectively. This is not only crucial for compliance with legal standards but also enhances the overall user experience.
