9 of the Best Website Design Inspirations in 2023

Let’s make website designs great again. Across the globe, businesses are redefining their space on the internet with more creative, engaging and immersive websites. Today, websites are not just static posters advertising company profiles. They have become responsive receptionists, persuasive storytellers, bustling meeting grounds, comprehensive storefronts and captivating showcases of a brand’s soul. Research has shown that 94% of first impressions on a website are design-related. Leading brands are fronted by leading designs that go beyond what a website was thought to do.

Summary

1. What Makes a Great Website Design?
2. 9 Amazing Website Designs to Spark Inspiration in 2023

What Makes a Great Website Design?

So what stands in the gap between a decent website and a great one? Most websites can get the job done but great websites are built with users in mind. Take your users on a journey into your brand’s personality and let them enjoy the process. With the right site architecture, navigation, design elements, and format, your website can transform into a space that draws visitors in to keep up to date on what your business is doing. Let’s get inspired by what good website designs can be with some solid examples.

9 Amazing Website Designs to Spark Inspiration in 2023

Airbnb

Airbnb is a global online marketplace that connects people seeking unique accommodations with hosts offering a variety of lodging options. Founded in 2008, Airbnb has revolutionised the way people travel by providing a platform for individuals to list, discover, and book accommodations across the world. Travelers can explore Airbnb’s listings and choose their ideal stay based on location, price, amenities, and reviews from other guests. They can also interact with hosts, ask questions, and gain insights into local experiences and recommendations.

Let’s get inspired by how their website design has a strong user focus.

User-Centric Filters:

Airbnb’s mission has hospitality at its heart so it’s no surprise that their website has a strong emphasis on user experience. They showcase their strong understanding of their users through a robust filtering system based on user needs.

Apart from location and price, they go to the nitty gritty details including amenities available, host language, number of bathrooms and more. With such a comprehensive search and filter functionality, users are more likely to get a place that suits what they are looking for. No matter what industry you are in, it can be helpful to build a product categorisation and filtering system that can narrow down the search for the ideal match sooner and more simply.

Trust Building:

Hotels and hostels have a clear reputation – for better or for worse. Airbnbs, on the other hand, can be difficult to trust because every home can have inconsistent service and accommodation standards. The uncertain reputation of Airbnb is what causes many travellers to think twice before booking a stay. Staying in the home of a stranger in a foreign country with beautiful pictures is an understandably unnerving experience.

That’s why Airbnb incorporates trust-building elements like user reviews and superhost badges to reassure visitors who are seeking a stay. They take it one step further with Airbnb Plus for certified homes. To build trust with your users, consider enhancing the credibility of your website and business with visual displays of certifications or badges.

Behance

Behance is an online platform and social media network designed to showcase and discover creative work across various fields and industries. Founded in 2005, Behance has become a leading hub for creative professionals, including artists, designers, photographers, illustrators, and more. Whether you’re seeking inspiration or looking to showcase your creative portfolio, Behance provides a versatile and user-friendly platform to discover exceptional talent, stay updated with industry trends, and connect with potential clients, employers, or collaborators.

Let’s take a look at how their website design invites engagement.

Call to Collaborate

Behance is a creative networking space that does so much more than showcase designs. It invites interaction on the site through comments, interactions, view count and more. They succeeded in creating a collaborative space online with visual cues and capabilities that allow users to seamlessly engage with the content through call-to-actions and icons that make it easy to join the conversation.

User Showcases

Owned by Adobe, Behance is a user-led platform that showcases the strength of Adobe’s suite of services from Photoshop to Illustrator, XD, CodePen, Figma, Marvel and more. Giving your users space on the website can help to inspire site visitors on real-life applications of your products. Beyond the world of software tools, fashion and beauty companies have been doing the same with dedicated space for ‘How It Looks On You’. This brings the products and solutions to life beyond what models and tutorials can do.

Nortera

In the field of processed vegetables, Nortera stands tall as a leader in North America. Nortera’s impressive adaptability and profound expertise enable a consistent and abundant supply of premium vegetable products. Their primary objective centers around advancing societal well-being by spreading widespread access to the nutritional goodness and diversity found in vegetables.

Explore their website design to see how they keep the user experience enjoyable throughout the site.

Error 40Fun

We have seen the Oops! and we have heard the “Sorry the page you’re looking for cannot be found”. Nortera has a more cutting-edge way (quite literally) of letting users know they have lost their way on their site. The straightforward sentence plastered across the screen is accompanied by an interactive vegetable-slicing game that transforms the cursor into their weapon of choice.

Nortera does not just appease the reader with a sorry, their creative error page almost makes users thankful for the broken link that led them there. As a leader in processed fruits and vegetables in North America, they remain brand-aligned with their vegetable-themed game. When building your website, give your users a good experience wherever they are on your site – even if it’s off the beaten path.

Aether Apparel

Aether Apparel is a brand that embodies the seamless fusion of performance, style, and adventure. Established with a vision to redefine outerwear and activewear, Aether has consistently pushed boundaries to craft garments that meet the demands of both urban and outdoor lifestyles.

Incorporating cutting-edge technology and superior craftsmanship, Aether designs apparel that withstands the elements while maintaining a contemporary, refined aesthetic. From the bustling city streets to the rugged terrains, their garments strike a balance between form and function, ensuring versatility and durability in every piece.

Get inspired by how their website design makes technical information easy to read.

Reimagine Technical Specifications

The devil is in the details. Technical specifications are at once the most dry part of your website and where all the crucial information on your product lies. Here, users are not looking to be charmed by beautiful visuals, they are looking for the cold hard facts about your product.

What if you surprised users with the best of both worlds? That’s exactly what Aether Apparel did with easy-to-navigate dropdowns, icons, and a little mountain to show the temperature scale. Consider sprucing up your technical specifications with a more interesting layout that helps users scan the page easily.

Autex Acoustics

Autex Acoustics revolutionizes how we experience sound in different spaces. They offer tailored acoustic solutions for various environments like commercial spaces, schools, workplaces, and homes. Their products excel in noise reduction, sound control, and aesthetics.

Get inspired by how their simple website design lets their work shine.

Let Pictures Speak a Thousand Words

If your business has a visual-heavy focus, treat your website like the walls of an art gallery that shines the spotlight on your prized work. At Autex Acoustics, their website shows off their past acoustics architecture projects against a plain white and black theme. The design system of the site does not compete with the sophisticated design work of their projects.

With large high-quality images, the website leads users’ eyes to focus on what Autex Acoustics can do for restaurants, workplaces, community spaces and more. Sometimes, less is more to give your users more space to focus on what they are looking for.

How We Koala

Koala is an iconic Australian brand that reimagines comfort and sustainability in the world of furniture and lifestyle essentials. Committed to enhancing the way Australians live and interact with their surroundings, Koala infuses innovation and a strong eco-conscious ethos into every product they create.

Let their quirky website design help you think of creative ways to engage users.

Go Beyond Visuals

Building a truly immersive experience means engaging more than just one of the senses. Reminiscent of musical cards that play a tune when you open them, Koala’s website draws visitors into the brand’s world with sounds of nature. Technology has come too far for websites to use just one medium to engage users. The audio stimulus complements the brand’s nature theme with scroll effects of growing trees and unveiling shrubs.

For your brand, let your website call out to users by tapping into their senses directly instead of appealing to their imagination with static words and visuals.

Gapsy Studio

Gapsy Studio is a creative powerhouse that epitomises the convergence of imagination, design expertise, and cutting-edge innovation. They excel in crafting captivating digital experiences and designs that leave a lasting impression. Gapsy Studio’s services range from web and mobile app development to branding, UI/UX design, and digital marketing strategies.

Take a look at how their website design keeps users on the site.

Engage Even While Loading

Speed matters. Even a 1-second delay can reduce customer satisfaction by 16%. What happens when it takes 4 seconds for a page to load? 25% of users call it quits and abandon your site. Of course, there are various ways to reduce loading speed like optimising images and using effective third-party hosting.

But what if you have done all you can and your website loading speed is still slow? Engage your audience while the page is still loading. The virtual waiting room of your site might only be occupied for less than 5 seconds. But a well-designed 5 seconds can make the difference between an abandoned website and a hooked visitor.

Gapsy Studio runs a quick loading bar to show the progress of the loading to give visitors active feedback on how soon they will be able to enter the site in its full glory. Consider designing an engaging loading page that gives visual feedback to users on their expected waiting time while also engaging them.

Pioneer Microsite

Pioneer Seeds is a distinguished name in the world of agriculture. They provide a wide range of crop seeds, including corn, soybeans, sorghum, canola, sunflowers, and alfalfa, among others. Their commitment to excellence extends beyond seed development, encompassing comprehensive support and expert advice to help farmers succeed throughout the entire growing season.

Get a glimpse of how their website design makes full use of animation potential.

Use Cursor Effects

There are many building blocks to every website which bring together the entire design system. The navigation bar, the image choice, the font selection, the icons, the scrolling effects, and the background theme.

An often overlooked design element is the cursor and hover effects that bring about a more holistic design sense. Pioneer stands at the intersection of nature and science, and their website does not forgo any element in building their theme. The cursor effect disperse the words into chemical bonds to represent the brand’s bioengineering focus.

For your website, consider making full use of the animation potential on your site by using unexpected and immersive cursor effects.

Vestiaire Collective

Vestiaire Collective is a beacon of sustainable fashion and curated style, redefining the way we perceive and embrace pre-owned luxury. Founded in 2009, this renowned online marketplace has crafted a unique ecosystem that allows fashion enthusiasts to buy, sell, and rediscover pre-loved high-end fashion items.

Take a look at how their website design transforms a boring report.

Reject Mundanity

Reports have a bad reputation for making eyelids feel heavy. Endless scrolling through walls of text, statistics and tables with too many columns can conceal important advancements in business. Vestiaire Collective did not want its sustainability mission and progress to get cast aside as a PDF nobody clicks on.

By condensing the report highlights into 4 main statements, they built a site to excite users to find out more. Using bright colours, interactive pie charts and white space to make reading easier, visitors get a more enjoyable reading experience.

Consider using your site as a highlight reel for your business. Don’t give it all away. A less wordy site with clear call-to-actions can prompt visitors to speak to a representative where the real sales happen.

Let Verz Design Help You Craft a Website Design that Converts

With web design, there are endless possibilities but engaging your customers doesn’t need to have every single element mentioned above. It is important to know what your business wants to show and what your users want to see.

With over 14 years of experience, Verz Design is a web design company well-equipped to elevate your website into a brand touchpoint that leads users to fall in love with your brand. Our portfolio of websites spans across industries from corporate websites to eCommerce online storefronts and enterprise solutions. We do it all. From navigation, to animations, scroll effects and filters, we can build a robust visual system to tell your brand story digitally. Make your mark on your slice of the internet with effective web design.