Success in Design - Three Simple Elements
When I visit a new website that hits me with the “WOW” factor, three design element stand out.
1) A screen wide header graphic.
This graphic contains the name of the Website, frequently a tagline, usually an iconic logo or cartoony graphic, and it spans the entire screen width.
2) A main body of one to three horizontally placed graphic, instructive elements.
Articulate.com uses an image of a free e-book cover
My Mile Marker uses three text headers- “Record Your Miles”, “View Reports”, “Even on the Road” - with a bold graphic and short text below. In one glance you know exactly what the site is selling
Cell Swapper does a slight take on this with three horizontal elements in the middle, the first containing a “One, Two, Three” explaining their service.
Ideal Bite also uses a variation on the theme, with basically a single element in the middle to capture an email address, sandwitched by an icon on the left and teasers on the right. As a special little bonus, Ideal Bite uses a great tagline on their ‘nospam’ comment. Click on the link to read it…they say it best!
Oh, Don’t Forget takes this idea to the max, there are only three steps to its service, all blatantly obvious from the site’s design.
3) A screen wide footer element with one to three value added information bits.
Browse all of the above sites as well as the fifty listed here by Time for more examples of each of the above elements.
A few other critical items that these successful sites have in common:
- A Call to action
- Clear instructions on the use of the service
- A unifying color theme
Have more examples? Share with us in the comments!
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A good example of a bad design in a website? Godaddy.com. I think it is horrible. There is so much cognitive friction, you never even know where to go to get anything done.
Jim, Bad design sure isn’t hard to find, is it? I’d love to see other examples of what people consider good & bad design. There’s a link somewhere to ? Seth Godin’s redesigns of bad sites for usability, but I don’t know it off hand.