We’ve looked at a wide variety of industries when choosing sites for awards, but one thing we hadn’t yet considered was the reseller world. Since many resell small businesses are solopreneur operations, it took some time to find a few we felt had excellent website designs for the purpose they were intended. Back on the Rack Consignment Boutique offers a minimalistic look that appealed to us here at Designerly.

With over 1.8 billion websites in the world, it’s tough to narrow down which site we want to feature each month. Narrowing down niches helps considerably and we love to feature small businesses others can start and take toward success. 

It took us some time to narrow down the options to one winner. First, we chose resell businesses. We then moved to clothing categories. Finally, we narrowed down the options and chose the design we liked best that also functioned in a way that was easy for users to interact with. 

Winner: Back on the Rack Consignment Boutique 

The world of consignment resale shops is forever changing. Stores open and close. Inventory fluctuates. Prices rise and fall. However, with some people feeling an economic crunch, buying second hand has become more appealing. 

Many want to buy previously owned items to reduce their carbon footprint. A reporter for Medium took a look at whether reducing consumption of new clothes saves the environment. She reported that the majority of clothing manufactured today is made of polyester or acrylic, taking around 70 million barrels of oil to produce them each year. Buying previously loved items saves the direct consumption as well as pollution during the manufacturing process. It also saves you money. 

We chose Back on the Rack Consignment Boutique for our award because their site features the clothes in beautiful images. It also has a strong navigational and search system, features latest arrivals and makes ordering online simple. 

What Does Back on the Rack Consignment Boutique Do Differently?

Everything about the website is minimalist. Even the About Us page gives a short rundown of the owner, how she got into women’s pre owned fashion and the store hours. To the right is their address, phone number and a map to the store. 

The store got its humble beginnings on eBay about 20 years ago. Today, they have the one location and sell directly to their customers in sizes extra small to 3X. They carry clothing, shoes, handbags and accessories. 

Rather than taking everything brought to them, as a thrift store might, Back on the Rack Consignment Boutique schedules appointments for large batches of clothing or takes 10 items at a time. They inspect each piece to ensure it looks like new and give a preference to designer labels. 

The attention to quality ensures every item in the store speaks to one of the customers entering or shopping online. With more people seeking ways to shop without leaving their homes, they put many of the items on their integrated Shopify store to help people order the items they love most. The store has a no return policy, so people should only buy items by makers they know their sizing in or they’re willing to take a chance on. If it doesn’t fit, you might be able to resell it, but you won’t be able to take it back. 

Why We Chose Back on the Rack Consignment Boutique as Our Site of the Month

If the overall design aesthetic speaks to you as it did to us, you likely see why we chose this one as our Site of the Month. 

Minimalism

As mentioned before, we love the smooth, clean lines of this design. Ample white space puts the focus on the clothing being featured. 

Navigation

The number of navigation options are limited to a handful. It is clear where the user should go to access various areas of the site. Categories include:

• Schedule an Appointment 
• About Us 
• Shop 
• How to Consign
• Contact

The focus is on the calls to action (CTAs) moving users toward the site goal of shopping. 

Social Media

Even though it is only a link on the website, the company has an active Facebook page that pulls the audience in and keeps them updated on new arrivals and hot items. They use their story to share new pieces, including the size and brand and a link to add it to the shopping cart. 

Mobile Responsiveness

The site and their participation in Facebook stories makes the site extremely mobile-friendly. People can order with a single click on the social media photo. The site itself sizes nicely for smaller screens without losing any of its minimalistic qualities. 

Beautiful Images

It would be easy for a smaller business to take quick snapshots of low quality. However, this site takes the time to stage the photos and create lovely images that pull the reader in. The mix of colors and close-up views of various features on each piece make it useful to shoppers. 

Frequent Updates

The owner uses the social media page and the website to post fresh arrivals every day and sometimes several times a day. This keeps the content fresh and engaging for those visiting. People are more likely to get in the habit of checking back frequently to ensure they don’t miss anything. 

What We Would Do Different

There isn’t a lot we’d change about the Back on the Rack Consignment Boutique website. The simplicity of the layout and categories makes it easy to use and find what you’re looking for. 

One thing we might change is adding in a bit more detail to the About Us page. The owner is the personality behind this brand. She’s almost always in the store when one goes into it. Her personality shines through the products offered and the social media posts. Adding some details about her and a photo would be beneficial without overwhelming users. 

We’d also love to see some style tips where she shows ideas for putting together an outfit using various pieces. The tips could be general, such as that wide-legged pants look great with this type of top since the inventory changes frequently. 

We truly loved taking a look at resale sites and finding one with such a stellar design. There’s a lot to learn about creating a small e-commerce or brick-and-mortar retail store by studying this website. 

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Every month, we choose a site to receive our coveted Designerly design award. We’ve looked at e-commerce stores, government websites and hotels. This month, we narrowed our options to the financial industry and finally chose to look at banks, which led us to the vivid colors and intuitive design of Old National.

The color blue isn’t a new feature of bank websites. Forbes Advisor reports nearly eight in 10 people in the U.S. are concerned about whether their bank is sustainable. Since blue is a traditional bank color and promotes feelings of trust, it makes sense for physical and digital banks to include the hue in their designs.

It took us a while to choose the winner for this particular category. As you might imagine, there are thousands of banking websites and the majority of them have some shade of blue in the design. However, we finally landed on Old National because of the navigation, simplicity and user flow.

Winner: Old National

Banking is changing fairly rapidly, with more and more fully digital banks entering the scene. Younger generations are more open to a bank without a single physical branch. Even though, Old National offers both online and in-person banking options, they seem to be on the cutting edge of intuitive design.

We chose them as the winner of this month’s award due to their business to many (B2M) approach that covers categories such as personal, business and digital banking.

What Does Old National Bank Do That’s Special?

As you dig through the “About Us” section of the website, you’ll see that Old National lays out a number of things they care about, such as embracing ESG considerations to try to be inclusive and environmentally conscious.

They share that they are the sixth largest bank with headquarters in the Midwest. They have around $48 billion in assets. They pride themselves on the relationships they form with their clients.

The company dates back to 1834, making it one of the oldest institutions in the country. The bank offers a statement about helping local communities by working on community development projects and offering grants.

Their branches offer personal banking options, including:

• Checking
• Savings
• Home Loans
• Personal Loans

They also provide business banking and offer:

• Small Business Banking
• Commercial Banking
• Treasury Management

Their digital banking features

• Zelle
• Mobile Check Deposit
• Bill Pay

The bank likely has something to suit just about any potential client, so it makes sense they’d represent all these features on their website. What makes their site stand apart, however, is the ability to easily navigate between areas.

Sadly, one of the Louisville branches was hit with a tragedy in 2023, when an armed shooter went on attack.

We want to make it clear that while our hearts go out to the bank staff, our decision to choose Old National for site of the month was based solely on the user friendliness of their website.

Why We Chose Old National As Our Site of the Month

Narrowing the choices down from a long list of possible banks took some time. We decided we wanted to focus on a website that offered areas for each buyer persona and would include personal and business banking at a minimum.

Since digital banking is so popular, we also wanted to select a bank offering digital options for its customers and an app they could download for their on-the-go banking needs. ]

Navigation

The navigation at some banking websites gets bulky. With Old National, they break selections into three main categories and then further subcategories under each.

Color Palette

When you look at what the color blue evokes, you find it elicits trust. It makes sense for a company that takes control of your money to use a color that makes users feel they are capable and reliable.

They also add a pop of yellow to grab attention and give the site a unique look that’s different than their competitors.

Trust Indicators

It’s crucial that the audience trusts a banking website. Old National includes some trust factors that pull the user in. In the footer, they include that they’re a member of the FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender. This shows potential customers their money is guaranteed.

Fresh Content

One thing that drives traffic to a site and keeps users coming back is adding fresh content frequently. Old National features a number of articles on topics of interest to the audience. For example, they talk about money myths, debt consolidation and low down payments to get into your first home.

Calls to Action (CTAs)

The CTA buttons on the website guide the user through the buyer’s journey. By using the pop of yellow to draw attention, the designer makes it clear what next steps people should take.

In addition to sharing the opportunity to get details on a high savings interest rate, they also have CTAs that read, “Open a Checking Account,” “View Savings Rates” and “Ask” to interact a database of frequently asked questions and answers.

Mobile Responsiveness

Old National edged out the competition because of the streamlined look of their mobile site and their app. The site narrows down to the function at hand, making it extremely user friendly for small screen users.

The mobile version focuses a bit more on the image carousel but the buyer has no doubt what their next move might be.

What We Would Do Different

Old National is a study in traditional design and modern conveniences. While users will appreciate the layout of the desktop site, the mobile site scales everything down and serves a different role.

If we were going to change one thing about the website, we would make it easier to find the resources the site offers. There are numerous tools, calculators and articles on crucial investment topics. We’d probably put an area right on the front page to showcase the latest articles. It might be a bit different than some banks, but it highlights the knowledge this one has.

Overall, Old National created a user-friendly design with rich colors that pull the customer in. Study the site to learn how to serve multiple audiences at once and still give them all what they need.

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Finding the best designs imaginable is a fun task each month. We start with a wide net, narrow things down to a design or industry category and then compare features and aesthetics. We wanted to find a site with an immersive shopping experience this time. After perusing different ways to engage customers, we decided to narrow things down to e-commerce stores and we fell in love with Bloomingdale’s 150th anniversary celebration theme. 

Engagement could be the thing that separates your store from thousands of others. When someone lands on your page, give them a reason to stay. Entertain, educate or direct them to the next step in the buyer’s journey. 

The longer you can keep someone on your page, the more likely they will buy something. People tend to remember and share sites that are unique and serve a purpose. 

Winner: Bloomingdale’s

Revenue in the e-commerce industry will increase to $1.4 trillion by 2027. Finding a way to stay fresh in customers’ minds is tough. 

With the upcoming and continued growth of e-commerce, expect sites to do more and more to stand out. They’ll tap into new technologies and feature things such as the immersive shopping experience Bloomingdale’s added. 

We chose them as our winner because they held our attention. We kept browsing around to see what products were featured, find the three elements for their game and because it was almost as much fun as a simulation game. The design was like a cross between virtual reality, where you step into a new world and walk around, and the 360-degree view videos real estate agents use. 

What Does Bloomingdale’s Sell?

The retail giant has been around for decades but is best known for clothing and accessories. Lyman and Benjamin Bloomingdale founded the luxury department store chain in 1860 in New York City. They started with a small bazaar on the east side of the city and expanded from there. Today, they have over 54 different locations. 

The brand has always been and likely always will be about cutting-edge fashions of the day. They continue that tradition by offering designer clothing in stores and online. 

Some of the brands you’ll find in their stores include: 

• Alexander McQUEEN
• Botkier
• Charles David 
• Cartier 
• Dolce & Gabbana 
• Marc Jacobs

You’ll find everything from lingerie to outer wear to shoes and handbags in their offerings. The thing that makes them stand out from other retailers is their commitment to carrying only the highest quality in fashion and function. 

Why We Chose Bloomingdale’s as Our Site of the Month

When it comes to e-commerce stores, you might think this one isn’t anything special at first glance. They have the same types of descriptions, photos and layout as many other online retailers. Although everything is professional, the typical function of the site isn’t the reason we selected this one.

We try to choose smaller businesses when possible to highlight that anyone can learn and create an amazing website for their business. However, Bloomingdale’s immersive online shopping experience is well worth noting. We think you can learn a lot from what they’re doing. We featured Murano Glass as another e-commerce store and went into more detail about what elements to include if you feel unsure for your own site. 

The aesthetics, navigation, images and other elements are spot on for the main site, so we wanted to focus on the immersive experience and how it works. It is set up like a 360-degree interactive video. As you move throughout the images, you can click and interact, add items to your shopping bag, collect objects toward a reward and just have fun. All screenshots were collected from Bloomingdale’s website. Here is the journey:

View of the Building

As you land on the page, you are shown a view of the building. It’s clear where you should enter but you can also pan around and look at the cityscape in the virtual world you’ve just landed in. 

Double click to move forward and follow the arrows on the floor. There is also signage inside the building to point the way. 

Playing Games

As you enter the building, you’re greeted with a bubble that has an object inside of it. The object is a brown bag to signify the shopping bag you can add items to while browsing. We like the clean, crisp look of the design with a lot of white and pops of color from featured products and images.

Pop Ups

Bloomingdale’s also utilizes popups to lead the way. Note when you click on the brown bag, a popup box explains you can win a surprise by collecting three objects. As you click on them in the bubbles, the icons will go from black and white to colored. 

Adding in a task for the user to complete makes the process more interactive. Locating each item turns the journey into a game. The user only has to find three things to reveal the surprise, so they are likely to continue until they collect them all. 

Take a Ride

Bloomingdale’s makes the world quite like a VR game by adding in a shuttle ride where you see what looks like the inside of a subway or tram and you see objects moving past as though you are going to a new location. When you exit the doors, you are thrown into a unique world called Forty Carrots. 

Build New Worlds

Statista predicts the metaverse market will reach $490.40 billion by 2030, with a growth rate of almost 37% annually. People love new worlds and immersing themselves in new, fantastical worlds. 

Bloomingdale’s creates a bright, candy world where you go into a single white building and can serve yourself ice cream. The only real purpose is to have fun and show how unique their store is. You then take the shuttle back to the store.

As you continue to explore the building, you come across rooms with just a few products at a time. By featuring only a handful of objects in each location, Bloomingdale’s gives users a hyper-focus. You can add some items to your shopping bag or interact with them in various ways. 

Once you collect the three bubble objects, you unlock the 59th Street subway ride and get info on how they’ve updated their store to celebrate the anniversary. They also have a video you can watch with a custom message. 

They also use the opportunity to showcase custom items, such as a bear cookie jar, created as anniversary additions. Add them to the bag at the same time and buy them when you checkout. 

As you can see, they create a universe of their own, closely tie it to the brands they feature anyway, celebrate a big milestone and entertain consumers at the same time. We were highly impressed with Bloomingdale’s immersive experience. 

What We Would Do Different

There isn’t much to change about the immersive experience. We would encourage Bloomingdale’s to add more for different events and change the world and specials from time to time. It was so much fun to poke around the virtual building and check things out. The site kept our staff highly engaged for a good hour, which isn’t an easy task with a bunch of design-savvy users.

You could do something similar with your site by creating a 360-degree video or even just adding a game or some objects users click on to reveal various popups with surprises or information. Taking the time to build out such an engaging experience may seem tedious, but the result will be highly engaged users who tell their friends to visit your site.

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Designerly finds examples of excellent web design each month. Typically, we start by narrowing down options to a category, a niche within that category and then analyzing top sites. As we give out more awards, finding industries we may have overlooked becomes more challenging. This month, we decided to look at the manufacturing industry and TYMETAL became a clear winner fairly early on. 

As you can imagine, manufacturing covers everything from steel companies to recreational vehicle brands to consumer product factories. With such a broad selection of potential sites to choose from, we felt the need to narrow our options as much as possible to be fair to the sites competing for the award. 

Once we narrowed down the options to companies offering security gates and similar products, it was easy enough to select TYMETAL as the finalist. The site is aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional with excellent user experience (UX). 

Winner: TYMETAL

The Global Smart Security Gate Market Research Report 2023 shows a projected growth rate of 9.9% annually between 2023 and 2029. TYMETAL’s website design embraces the opportunities inherent in the industry and showcases why their product stands out from others of their kind. 

As the market continues to grow, more players will enter the field. We selected TYMETAL as our award winner in this category because the design should stand the test of time as technology enhances the product and the world changes. 

What Does TYMETAL Do?

Although it didn’t factor into our selection, we were impressed that TYMETAL upgraded gate security for the Georgia State Capitol. Some of the cutting edge technology they used included 3D scan site surveys and laser cut templates for exact alignment with the typography of the site. 

The company opened in 1985 and provides around 25 different perimeter security products, such as:

• Telescoping gates
• Swing gates
• Crash fences
• Vertical lift gates
• Pedestrian turnstiles

One of the things that sets TYMETAL apart is that they custom design for each client. They are also utilizing modern technology to plan and produce their security gates. Some of the things they use include robotic welding, CNC bending and special painting options. They provide gates and perimeter security for commercial properties and correctional facilities. 

If you want to see some of the projects the company has worked on, check out their gallery page. They’ve divided it into categories such as airports, government facilities, chemical plants and refineries. 

Why We Chose TYMETAL as Our Site of the Month

Choosing TYMETAL was almost too easy. Not only does the site answer every question a potential user might have, but the overall look has a minimalist quality that appeals to a wide range of users. 

Navigation Bar

The primary navbar breaks the site into key categories. What we like best about it is that as you hover over each tab, a mega menu drops down, including images and additional categories. Expanded menus give the user a chance to see the depth of what the business offers.

Studies show 94% of users prefer a site with simple navigation. The more intuitive you can make your categories, the better site visitors will respond. 

Color Palette

TYMETAL utilizes a blue and orange color scheme, which could be rather garish if used liberally on a website. Instead, they use it as accent colors and have a lot of white space to counteract the vividness of the color combination. The final result is a site that is easy on the eyes but still grabs the user’s attention.

Trust Factors

Users may not realize why they trust or distrust a site, but TYMETAL has a number of factors that put visitors at ease. For example, they list a toll-free number in the upper right corner of the site. Users can find the information and click on it from a smartphone. They also list a number of organizations they belong to at the bottom of the page, such as the American Fence Association and AISC. 

Explainer Videos

Because some of what TYMETAL does is complex, they offer explainer videos via their About page and also on YouTube. Site visitors can see a gate crash test in action, get details on detention security and gather details on how gates work even in a power outage. 

Testimonials

As a manufacturer, TYMETAL mainly works with other businesses. To showcase their clients and how happy they are with the product, they feature testimonials. People like to hear from their peers on how well something works, so showcasing thoughts from those who’ve already worked with them says a lot about the quality of their product. 

Slider

Some people will say sliders shouldn’t be used, but we actually appreciate a well-designed slider in the hero shot. TYMETAL does an excellent job of showcasing their different projects in their slider.

Users will see commercial business gates as they read facts such as how long the company has been in operation. The images include airports, logistics company facilities, custom perimeters and vertical lift gates. 

Call to Action (CTA)

The large CTA button grabs user attention above the fold. The text reads “Contact Us” to indicate they offer custom solutions to leads. When the person clicks on the button, they go to a form they can fill in and send. However, to the right are other ways to get in touch, including a toll-free number and office locations. 

Mobile Responsiveness

Since more people access the internet via their mobile devices than ever before, Designerly staff always looks at how responsive a site is. We were quite impressed with TYMETAL. Not only does the site translate well on a smaller screen, but we think it looks better on mobile than desktop. 

What We Would Do Different

When a site is as well-designed at TYMETAL, it’s hard to find something to criticize. We ran through the list of things we see in a lot of designs that can be improved. The only thing we would change is the additional menu above the primary one. It is too much and it detracts from the overall aesthetic of the site. We’d probably move these links to the footer or into one of the drop down menus and let it live there. 

We would keep the “Contact Us” CTA option but turn it into a button immediately instead of scrolling down. 

Other than one minor change, we are in love with the design of this manufacturer’s website. It’s a good one to study for ideas on how to design a B2B manufacturing website. 

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Designerly looked at the travel industry this month to narrow down the choices and hand out an award for design to El Palace Barcelona. Anything travel related tends to have sweeping views and tons of features, so we narrowed the options for our design award down a bit more and looked only at hotels. 

As you can imagine, there are big players in the hotel industry, including brands such as Hilton, Sheraton and Marriott International. We couldn’t possibly study every hotel out there, so we narrowed the options a bit more by what hotels popped up in searches of major cities. We haven’t focused on websites in Spain yet, so Hotel Barcelona stood out for us. 

From video elements to a user-friendly design, this site had everything we look for in an example of excellent layout, appearance and functionality. 

Winner: El Palace Barcelona

El Palace Barcelona–Hotel Barcelona in English–has a stunning site design. Although the industry stuttered during the global COVID-19 pandemic, experts predict it will rebound to an annual growth rate of 8.1% and hit $1.27 trillion by 2031. 

With steady growth, more hotels will enter the playing field in the next decade. We chose El Palace Barcelona because it is easy to use and beautiful. The aerial shots of the hotel draw the viewer in and showcase the unique architecture of the building. The text overlay doesn’t distract from the aesthetics of the design but adds to it. 

What Is El Palace Barcelona Like?

El Palace Barcelona is located at Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 668, Barcelona 08010

Spain. The hotel was designed by Antoni Falcon and offers fountains, pergolas, a swimming pool, tons of glass and light and over fifty different species of plants. It’s a little oasis in the middle of Barcelona, Spain. 

You’ll find 120 rooms and suites, each decked out in luxurious bedding and furniture. You’ll find a beautiful rooftop garden on the seventh floor and a gorgeous swimming pool. Visitors feel as though they’ve stepped back into the 1920s when they see the solarium. The hotel features live music in the evenings in the cocktail bar. 

The hotel is close to the beach and the wine region. The architecture screams Baroque period and the hotel was once a Ritz, which isn’t surprising when you see the grandeur of the place. Open since 1919, it is still a thriving business with plans for the future as the hotel group revamps the interior with new fixtures. 

The gallery of images shows the interior also giving a nod to Baroque. From a Mayan luxury spa to a grand  hall for meetings and events, you’ll find luxury in every corner of Hotel Barcelona. You’ll find images of the 1920s and the front when it was Hotel Ritz. Movie stars, musicians and royalty have stayed at the hotel through the decades.

Why We Chose El Palace Barcelona As Our Site of the Month

The main attraction was the video showcasing a front-facing aerial view that sweeps up into an overhead look at the rooftop garden. Numerous travel sites feature videos and even aerial shots, so we looked a bit deeper at other elements, such as the simplicity of the design and how well the calls to action (CTAs) function. 

User Intent

Does the site meet the user intent for those looking for a hotel in Barcelona? Someone looking to book a hotel in this city can see what the location offers and what rooms are available on which dates. Information is easy to locate. 

Aesthetic Appeal

We like the simplicity of the design. Because the video is the major portion of the page above the fold, the designer limited other elements to just a handful. The serif fonts on the heading and subheading give the site a formal personality that matches the elegance of the hotel. The limited colors put the focus on the video. White and red add details without distracting from the overall look. 

CTAs

A call to action is arguably one of the most crucial components of a successful design. If the goal of a website is to turn visitors into leads or customers, then paying particular attention to placement, color and wording can make an impact on conversion rates. The pop of red for the “Book Now” CTA button grabs attention the minute you land on the page.

Navigation

Before we give out a website design award, we spend time in the navigational structure of a site. A design can be beautiful but nonfunctional. Since people use navigation to move throughout a site on various pages, it is one of the top functions we consider.

The El Palace Barcelona navigational hierarchy is spot on. We like the way it is a hamburger menu even on desktop, as it does not distract from the video or CTA. However, it then expands into a gorgeous mega menu offering large links to various areas of the hotel or to meet the needs of a wide array of site visitors. 

Speed

While site loading time isn’t the only thing Google considers when ranking a site, a slow page can knock you out of the top position and even cause visitors to bounce away. We tested El Palace Barcelona on both desktop and mobile and found it loaded at lightning speed. 

Around 67% of internet users get online via mobile at least some of the time. A slow-loading page can kill your conversion rates. On the mobile version of the site, the image turns into a static one for faster loading, but parallax scrolling keeps the user engaged and moving steadily through the site on the buyer’s journey. 

Trust Factors

If people haven’t done business with you before, they have no reason to trust you to do what you say or give them value for their money. One thing Hotel Barcelona does that works particularly well is to have a page where they list mentions of their hotel. 

Well respected magazines featured the El Palace Barcelona, including Conde Nast and local newspapers. 

Images

We love their image gallery, featuring the hotel today and from different decades. It was one of the reasons we chose them for an award. Sharing your brand’s history with people gives them a glimpse of the ups and downs of building your business. It engages users and helps spark their imaginations. 

What We Would Do Different

We don’t love the white with the red. It’s pretty harsh on the eyes and not in keeping with the rest of the design. We’d choose a soft cream color instead to soften the glare and not distract as much from the video. Another option would be to make the white bar slightly transparent so the text still shows but the video plays peekaboo in the background. 

The site has many features that other designers can learn from, including the functionality of the booking system and the wording on the CTA. From the bright red that grabs attention to the well-thought-out font choices, the site is an excellent example of strong design with a nod to where technology might take the hotel industry in the near future.

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When deciding what type of site we wanted for this month’s awards, we realized we wanted something built on recent technology. So many changes are in the pipeline thanks to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that we spent some time brainstorming which sites tap into various tools–BetterHelp made the cut thanks to its app, which is user friendly and practical.

The online therapy sphere is still somewhat new, although some places have been doing it on a smaller scale for many years. To be effective, the online model must be easy enough for anyone to use without much onboarding. The focus this month was fully on user experience (UX), but we also wanted a website that still hit the other high notes we expect from a well-designed site. 

Winner: BetterHelp

The world is in the middle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). For example, the adoption rates for AI across almost every sector is on the rise. Marketing and Advertising is at 37% but consulting hovers around 30%, which is the category BetterHelp falls into. 

With that in mind, we chose BetterHelp because they utilize technology to code tools that help people overcome difficulties. We also liked their cartoon renderings for the various groups of potential customers. Rather than using a random stock photo of a person they think might seek online therapy, they dug into their buyer personas and created an image for each. 

The effect is an aesthetically pleasing design that hits on many modern trends. 

What Does BetterHelp Do?

BetterHelp offers virtual therapy via a variety of modes, including:

• Phone
• Live Chat
• Video

One thing to be aware of for those utilizing the services is that not all therapists offer all modes of communication. While it sounds as though you’ll have access around the clock, there are limitations. In-person therapy also has some rules surrounding communication, so we didn’t see this as a particular weakness for the business model. Our focus is on overall design anyway but we felt we should mention it. 

Although we didn’t actually pay for a therapy session, we did review dozens of third-party reviews, study screenshots and check out the app on a mobile device. Building an app can be challenging for most businesses. When an app is simple to navigate the entire user experience increases tenfold. BetterHelp’s platform seems very intuitive. 

BetterHelp claims to be the largest therapy platform in the world. They’re located in Silicon Valley alongside some of the biggest tech companies in the world, such as Apple, Facebook and Google. 

The company was founded by Alon Matas and Danny Bragonier in 2013. Two years later, the company Teladoc, Inc. bought the brand name. Matas wanted to offer something to help others after his own struggles to find professional counseling that worked with his professional schedule. 

Why We Chose BetterHelp As Our Site of the Month

The use of video chats, live chats and a dedicated app were the main reasons we selected BetterHelp as our site of the month. There are many therapy websites out there offering excellent UX for site visitors. However, the app put things over the top for this company and made us select them as a good one to study when developing an online presence for a counseling business. 

Let’s dig into what we love about this site and what you can learn for your own designs. Even if you don’t own a therapy-based business, you can still gather tips to apply to your online presence. 

Modern Minimalistic Design

The illustrations work particularly well for this site. Whenever a new visitor lands on the page, they immediately see images of people like them in illustrated form. 

Color Palette

The website’s colors are soothing blues and greens. People tend to have an emotional response to colors. The color blue is widely used in design as both men and women like the hue. Green can indicate nature and give the hint of being kind to yourself. The combination of the two colors creates a calm design we love. 

Navigational Structure

The site has a simple navigation bar right where users expect one to be, near the top of the page. The nav bar is interactive. As you hover over the tabs, a lime-green underline appears to show you can click there and go to that section of the site. 

The designer limited the number of categories to seven so the user isn’t overwhelmed with choices. Although the navigation works well, it doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the design, sitting at the top and waiting until it’s needed. 

Call to Action (CTA) Buttons

The CTA buttons on the site are quite effective because they are specific to the user’s needs. Within the nav bar are two potential CTAs. One lets current clients log in and the other helps new clients “Get Started.” 

Still within the top fold of the page are three categories where people can click and gather more information, including individual, couples and teen therapy. 

Unique App

The app is available for iOS and Android devices. You can use it to book therapy sessions or engage in live chat or video chat with your therapist. The app has a 4.8 star out of 5 star rating on Apple. 

You don’t need any special training to use the app. Anyone with a smartphone should be able to figure it out in minutes.

Good Engagement

The website engages users from the minute they land on it. In addition to the underlines within the navigation bar, there is an ongoing ticker counting up the number of clients they’ve helped and how many therapists they employ. 

If the user chooses to “get matched” to a therapist, the system walks them through a series of steps that are simple and personalized through the journey. The system asks a series of questions, which may lead to additional questions in an attempt to match you with a therapist offering what you most need and want. The process is quite UX-friendly with just a button to click after each question.

Comparison Checklist

We also like the comparison checklist on the homepage of the site. They show the differences between online and in-person therapy so users can make an informed decision about their next step. 

The use of check boxes and red X’s highlights the benefits of digital therapy and why they might be the best choice for some people. Just under, they highlight a few reviews to drive home how helpful the model might be to their target audience. 

Focus

One mistake we see a lot when searching various websites and analyzing their strengths is lack of focus. Some pages are built over time and hop around to various trains of thought without a singular purpose for the landing page.

With BetterHelp’s landing page, the focus is on converting the site visitor into a patient. Sharing details, adding strong CTA commands and keeping the focus on getting started all work together to move the user to the next step in the journey. 

What We Would Do Different

While we do love the look of the site and how modern it feels and the app is perfection, we would change a few things to just make it a bit better.

First, the FAQ category in the main navigation bar is distracting. It is an all caps acronym, while the rest of the taps are title case categories. It doesn’t seem to fit there and it draws the attention away from the CTAs. We would shift it to the footer instead. 

The typography works and fits nicely, but we would make the headline a bit bolder and have it better match the logo text. It doesn’t pop as much as it could and the reader sort of skims past it. Perhaps the designer’s intent was to move the user right to the three boxed categories, but it falls a bit flat. 

Overall, the BetterHelp website and app hit all the high notes we expect from a well-designed site. You’ll learn a lot by studying what they do and how to incorporate elements of the design into your own work.

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With how much buzz is going around the internet about the company OpenAI with the release of ChatGPT, we thought this was an excellent time to look at the website behind the chatbot technology. After all, people who are so adept at creating AI-driven software must surely have excellent web design. 

OpenAI doesn’t disappoint. Anyone who’s ever designed an app, coded a website or worked on a digital project knows how difficult it is to hit all the high points for user experience (UX) on every element of the project and across your assets. 

To be certain we were taking a fair view of the overall design of the website and not letting the trending popularity of the software sway our views, we also accepted an invite to try out Google’s Bard and see how their overall design compared. We also tested the software itself, of course! Who wouldn’t? 

Winner: OpenAI

Why does this particular technology development site stack up so favorably against even big names such as Google? Experts predict the chatbot market will reach $1.3 trillion by 2025. As more companies and even lay people utilize the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), the industry will hit even higher numbers and the use of AI will become commonplace. 

It would be easy for a software development company to keep their design overly simplified and focus mainly on the UX of the program. However, we chose OpenAI as our winner because their design is truly stellar and intuitive. 

What Is OpenAI?

OpenAI’s mission statement is to make sure AI benefits all of humanity. That’s a pretty tall order, and we aren’t sure how much it changes humanity, but it certainly is a useful tool that we see improving and increasing in popularity in coming years. 

A group of tech-savvy investors and AI experts founded the company in Silicon Valley in 2015. Notable founding members included Elon Musk and Sam Altman. Microsoft also sent an infusion of cash to help the brand develop their programs. 

The company started as a not-for-profit but shifted to a capped for-profit around 2019. The idea was to give employees a stake in the company and attract more investors who want to make a profit. 

Since the shift, they’ve partnered with Microsoft and partnered with many investors to pour funds into AI projects. The ultimate goal is to create a human-like machine that can outthink and outperform humans. The fear of such a future has been voiced by geniuses such as Stephen Hawking and Stuart Russell. Musk himself has called AI a threat to humanity. 

OpenAI sets some product standards to tie into their mission to make AI benefit humans rather than harm. With that in mind, they have some usage policies that ensure deployment and development of their models are responsible and safe. 

Anyone who has seen the movie “I-Robot” or read the book that inspired the film knows just what might happen when robots suddenly start thinking better than humans can and are capable of changing the face of the planet. Still, that type of concern is many decades away, if ever, so we feel fairly safe in handing out an award to OpenAI for their beautiful website design. 

Why We Chose OpenAI as the Winner in the Chatbot Industry

The real star of the company, however, is ChatGPT, which was released in November 2022. You may have also heard of Dall-e, a similar program that can generate artwork in a variety of styles based on other images on the internet. 

The reason we chose this website for this month’s awards has nothing to do with their programs, although we also admire the design and simplicity of how they function on the site. Instead, we looked at these factors when selecting them as the recipient. 

Video Hero Image

Using videos can boost brand awareness and increase engagement. We love the way users see a video the minute they land on the OpenAI home page. The images are relevant to the headline about GPT-4. We see software engineers creating code and coming up with equations to bring the bot to life. 

Minimalistic Design

It’s probably no secret that we adore simple designs that get right to the point. Note how the selections on the home page are limited and drive the user to the next phase of the buyer’s journey. The call to action (CTA) button reads “Learn About GPT-4.” If the user scrolls down slightly, there is also an option to “Try ChatGPT.”

Mobile Friendliness

The mobile version of the website is very responsive and while we prefer the desktop for typing in questions and queries to the actual software, you can at least get a sense of what the site is about by loading it on a smartphone.

One particular thing we noted was that the video background streams perfectly on a mobile device. Many sites move to a static image or cut the hero background altogether, but OpenAI keeps the same video on different screen sizes. 

Easy to Start

The UX of the site stands out from Google’s attempt to compete. While Bard functions in a similar way and offers valuable advice, it is a bit bulky to start using. As the developers continue to work on it, this may change but as with many of Google’s products, one must go through a series of steps to try to sign up.

First, Designerly staff received an invite to try Bard. We signed up and had to wait on a “waiting list” until we received an email about 12 hours or so later saying we could try it out with a link. The design of that page was under impressive and the reason OpenAI won out on all counts. 

Dark Mode

Another thing we noticed is the option on the left side to go into dark mode. When you first log on to use ChatGPT, the screen is white with a contrasting text. However, if you click on the dark mode button it turns to a deep gray with white text.

The ability to go from dark to light mode helps those who work with words all day avoid eye strain and even shift focus a bit when needed to jog the brain into thinking in different ways. 

What We Would Do Different

There’s a lot to love about the design of this website and we think our readers can learn a lot about creating an engaging landing page by studying it. The one thing we’d change is the navigation across the top of the header. 

While the placement is good and the navigation bar isn’t intrusive, we don’t like the way you have to click to get the drop down menus for each category to appear. Some might prefer this but we like the mouse over dropdown option to save time and make navigation more intuitive. 

We also don’t care for the way the search feature in the menu works. You have to click it and have it pop up before searching. You must also manually X out of it to close it down. It’s bulky and doesn’t match the rest of the design. 

Overall, this is a design most users will enjoy and likely return to try out a useful program and because they can easily move through different functions of the site. The company did an excellent job of focusing not only on developing an amazing product but delivering it in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

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For our Designerly award each month, we try to vary the industries we select winners from and embrace the best in current design trends combined with traditional excellent design. As we browsed around different options, the City of San Jose, California website stood out to us as a well-designed, information-packed option. 

State and city government websites can range from informational to multifaceted but are typically aimed at a very specific audience of people who live in the area. Well-designed local websites should understand the user personas for their target audience. 

Winner: City of San Jose, California

The world is headed into the Web3 era, where companies will focus more on building content and improving cybersecurity. Researchers estimate the global Web3 market will grow at a 40% CAGR and reach $23.3 billion by 2028. 

With that in mind, we chose the City of San Jose, California’s website to showcase some of the excellent user engagement design that will be the next wave of internet design. 

Not only is San Jose’s website design visually appealing, but it functions very seamlessly and engages the user almost from the instant they land on the page.

What Is City of San Jose, California Website?

When you click on “Our Story,” you go to a YouTube video about the City of San Jose, California. Videos are a brilliant way to share information and engage your audience. 
Around 86% of companies say they’ll use video as part of their marketing efforts. People respond to visual content, retaining a lot of the information. Adding your company history or other details via video is an excellent way to entertain your site visitors while condensing information into digestible bits.

Located in the Santa Clara Valley and the Guadalupe River, San Jose was established in 1850. It is about an hour southeast of San Francisco. The area is known for a mild climate and mostly sunny days. 

The city is the third largest in the state. It has the highest population thanks to the bay area spreading out so far. The city is also home to many workers from Silicon Valley. The city itself is made up of 178 square miles and has a population of over one million people. 

San Jose is famous for: 

• Being California’s first state capital 
• 10th largest city in the United States
• High-tech culture
• Home to one of three Japanese communities/towns

It isn’t surprising that in the heart of Silicon Valley, the town’s website is one of the best ones we’ve seen in this category. 

Why We Chose the City of San Jose, California as a Top State/City Website

The navigational structure of this site is one of the main reasons why we chose it for our monthly website award. The designers started by breaking down the site into several categories based on user personas. 

• Residents 
• Businesses 
• Jobs 
• Your Government 
• News & Stories

When you land on San Jose, California’s home page, you immediately see some clear signals about where to go. Everything else about the site pulls the user in and keeps them engaged from the first millisecond until the last. 

Color Palette

The lush Santa Clara Valley is filled with vivid greens and lush foliage thanks to the near-perfect weather there. The deep greens they use on the site reflect the city’s natural features perfectly. As the user moves down the page, blocks of bright color are broken by neutral white and variations of blues and greens. 

Choosing the right color palette can increase user engagement and add some emotion to your design. What color represents your city or business best?

Social Media

Since many people keep up with their local happenings via social media, it makes sense to put links to their social pages across the top of the website. Small icons show they have pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

Highlight the Positives

One thing we really loved was the little weather icon next to the social media icons in the uppermost bar. The user sees if it is cloudy, sunny, rainy and what the temperature is that day. For someone thinking about moving to the Capital of Silicon Valley, they’ll be enticed by the beautiful weather. 

Choose Your Language

Since the city has people speaking nearly 56 different languages, it makes perfect sense to tap into the power of translating the site into a language that matches what the person is most fluent in. We also like that this feature is near the top and easy for visitors to find. 

Grid Layout

Different trends come and go, but we still love a neat, simplistic grid layout for ease of use. The boxes also translate well on a mobile device, giving the site a responsive perk for users accessing via their mobile devices. 

Note how the colors vary between boxes to make it more visually appealing and separate the options without using harsh lines around them.

Chat Bot Feature

A chat feature pops up when you land on the page, wanting to know if you have any questions. By utilizing artificial intelligence bots and frequently asked questions, the system can answer almost anything.

The chat doesn’t seem to be staffed with live agents, so it is limited to the information in the database. However, it may refer you to a local agency or phone number for additional assistance.

Mobile Responsiveness

With the growth in the number of people using mobile devices to access the internet, we always look at how well a mobile version of a site performs. The grid layout looks just as strong as we imagined it would. The menu turns into a hamburger icon. The weather detail condenses and appears in the upper right corner of the page. 

What We Would Do Different

The City of San Jose, California website is well designed and functions exactly as users expect it to. The designers clearly thought through user intent and came up with almost any scenario one might imagine.

One thing we’d do is remove the COVID notice at the top of the mobile version and place it elsewhere. While it is easy enough to skim past on a desktop version of the site, it takes over a huge portion of the page on a smaller screen. There is an arrow users can tap to reduce or take away the notice, but it is another step we don’t think people should have to take. Perhaps automating it disappearing as the user scrolls would be the best option. 

Towns looking for the best way to organize massive amounts of information would be well served to study San Jose’s user-friendly model. Good job to the designers and website planners for coming up with a highly functional and visually appealing look. 

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One area we’ve not looked at as closely as of yet is the designs of websites specializing in web design and promotional services. As we end 2022 and head into a new year, we thought it was the perfect time to do a reset and see how well design agencies do with their own designs.

Anyone who’s been in business services understands how challenging it is to keep up with your work. The focus is always on the client, and it’s easy to lose sight of how your site design and promotional endeavors impact your brand image. 

We spent some time looking at dozens upon dozens of different websites of agencies. Designerly staff casted a wide net and including advertising agencies, marketing firms and design specialists. We finally narrowed down the options to a handful of sites offering consulting and design services to small businesses.

It isn’t easy to narrow the results down and choose a single option. In any category, there are many excellent examples. However, the results often come down to a few small elements that make one site stand out over the others. It can even be a bright color palette that grabs the user’s eye if all other elements are the same. 

Winner: Nimbletank

What makes a digital consulting website stand out from others? PR Newswire recently reported a 3.07% year of year growth rate for improved digital customer experience. As the world becomes more digital, people work remotely and order online, more and more companies see a need for not only a presence online but one that meets customers’ needs. 

To meet the growing demand for digital consulting services, many new companies spring up almost constantly. From a design standpoint, not all are stellar. We can’t really compare their services or quality of their models without being their clients, but we can study how they attract people to their pages, what happens when the user arrives and how aesthetically pleasing everything is. 

For various reasons, we chose Nimbletank as our Designerly award winner for December. We unpacked a lot of design features on this site that we think you’ll appreciate and can learn from. 

What Is Nimbletank?

Located in London, United Kingdom, Nimbletank dubs itself as a strategic digital consultancy. Some of the services they offer their clients include analysis of the impact on customers and design based on data. Whether you need a website, an app for your business or some other digital solution, they’ll take all the facts at hand and come up with a plan. 

Known for deep insights before you commit to the design. Anyone can throw up a website using a website builder. You can even find a free builder and toss up some pages. However, if you want to have maximum impact on your target audience, you need a little something more. Here are some of the services Nimbletank offers:

• Insight Gathering 
• Focused Priorities List 
• Opportunity Analysis 
• Concepts Presented to Panel 
• Value Modeling

Once the client and panel come up with a plan, experts will look at predictions throughout the process and suggest changes for the best outcome possible. 

Why We Chose Nimbletank as a Digital Consultant Top Contender

Paul Vallois is Nimbletank’s manager. The company is on the smaller side, making their design even more impressive. With CX technology spending reaching $641 billion last year, any company that focuses on how well designs work for a target audience are on the right track. From a web design standpoint, we appreciate the clarity the company provides about their focus on CX and impact of different design and promotional options. 

From the minute you land on Nimbletank’s home page, the site keeps you engaged and scrolling or clicking to learn more. Here are the reasons why we narrowed our selections down until Nimbletank was the clear winner. 

Simplistic Design

Although the website says a lot, it does so in an uncluttered and straightforward way. There isn’t anything to focus on other than the next phase of the buyer’s journey. The color palette uses orange, black and white. There are some shades of gray on the page we count in the black color family. Everything is laid out on a grid but some curves are added in for interest. 

Animation

We love the fun and beautiful animation on the landing page. The text is inside a sort of bullseye that morphes and moves in and out, putting the user’s focus on the words. The use of orange to black is striking. 

Limited Navigation Categories

It’s easy to let a website get bulky and take over the entire page. With Nimbletank, they focus on just five categories and the home button. It’s clear the next steps the user can take without any distractions to take them outside the path. 

Mobile Responsiveness

The mobile version of the site has animations, which is rare for smaller brands. We love the way it looks and matches the desktop version. The mobile responsiveness of the page is one of the things that put Nimbletank in the lead for this coveted award. Without a strong mobile presence, your site may miss potential customers who visit the internet only on mobile devices. 

What We Would Do Different

We adore the design, the animations, the bright pop of orange and the simplicity of the site. One thing we would change is some of the wording. It isn’t immediately clear what Nimbletank does as a business if you aren’t aware of their work. It would serve them well to work on their headlines and taglines a bit. Even the success stories don’t always point to specific services they offer. 

Tweaking some of the language is a thing almost every website can do to improve conversions. With so much to love about this site, it’s really a pretty basic fix. They’ve likely focused on messaging for clients and missed a few key components on their site because they haven’t had the same amount of time to invest. We recommend a wording audit and a few phrasing changes and this site will really shine.

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The fourth quarter is often a time when businesses reflect on the year they’ve just completed and look forward to new techniques and ways to scale up the company. Looking into EdTech gives companies solutions for improving things such as onboarding, ongoing training and starting company programs for people wanting to move into leadership roles. 

We spent some time researching the various education platforms, both ones offering courses and ones where companies can input their own information and offer whatever level of training they want online or in-person on computers. 

After narrowing the options down to a handful of platforms with a ton of flexibility, we settled on Instructure as one of the best options and best site designs out of the contenders.

Although our award is based on the overall design of the site, we did take into consideration the design elements of software as well as the overall user experience (UX) from start to finish. 

Winner: Instructure

What are the little known factors that turn an education technology website into something to behold? After all, those creating the site clearly already know a thing or two about design. However, many companies fall flat when it comes to creating landing pages that convert site visitors into customers. 

MarketWatch estimates the global EdTech market is around $1.15 billion, with an expected annual growth rate of 26.32% through 2027. The more employers change what they’re currently doing to attract and keep top employees, the more of a need there will be for services such as the ones Instructure offers.

We chose Instructure as a Designerly award winner mainly because of their on-point call to action (CTA) buttons offering site visitors the opportunity to explore the platform or watch a video. There is also a CTA inviting users to “Get a Demo.”

What Is Instructure?

Although the education technology company found its start in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States, they have offices all over the world. You can also find company representatives in the United Kingdom, Hungary, Australia, Hong Kong and Brazil.

Two graduate students started the company in 2008. By 2012, they were offering open online courses for people from all walks of life. Today, the company has a number of assets including Canvas, EesySoft and Practice. 

The e-learning market is on an upward trajectory. The pandemic sped up the implementation of online classroom options in K to 12, higher education and the workplace. As the world returns to life after COVID-19, people still want remote options for work and learning. By 2026, e-learning will be a $400 billion market. 

With their acquisitions of smaller brands and constant software updates, Instructure is poised to grow even more in the next few years. 

What we loved most about this beautiful, audience-centered site included:

• Informational video
• Beautiful CTA buttons
• Attention-grabbing headlines

We really love the way the favicon perfectly matches the company logo and appears crisp and eye-catching in a browser tab. 

Why We Chose Instructure as a Top EdTech Design

Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley, freshly graduated from Brigham Young University secured funding from Josh Coaes of Mozy and Epic Ventures. Within two years, Utah Education Network chose Instructure to replace Blackboard as their higher education learning management supplier. 

By making their main product, Canvas, open-source and offering it for free, they were able to gain even more market share from Blackboard. The company has grown rapidly in the last twelve years.

The company’s modern approach on their website shows how the founders had an attitude of not letting anything stop them. What is so brilliant about this design that you can apply to your own website?

Strong Color Palette

The site uses complementary colors of red and orange and blue and yellow to create sharp, eye-catching contrast on the page. Because the colors are so bold, they set it all against a white background with small splashes of a neutral blue-gray. 

Navigational Hierarchy

As companies grow, the navigational structure sometimes grows bulky and hard to navigate. Instructure’s design takes into account the growth of the brand and puts the user focus right where it needs to be. The main menu limits options to five categories:

• K-12 
• Higher Education 
• Resources 
• News & Events 
• About Us

An expanded menu appears in the footer. 

Interactive Features

The instructional video explains what the platform does for learning institutions and how it helps educators, parents and students better navigate online learning. They also offer a free demo so institutions can figure out how the platform works for their needs. 

Mobile Responsiveness

The ways people search online have changed over time. Over 50% of people use their mobile devices to browse online. One thing Designerly always considers before handing out an award is how well a site adapts to a smaller screen.

We’re very impressed with the way Instructure looks on a smartphone. Everything condenses and only the most crucial information remains. The overall look is minimalist and easy to read.

Live Chat

We like that the live chat is easy to find and integrates with the look of the rest of the site. Using a bot allows them to answer common questions before sending details to an agent for more detailed follow up. 

What We Would Do Different

Even though the design is stellar, instead of putting the demo behind an information paywall, we would open it up for anyone to try without providing detailed information to do so. The power of the buyer journey is in the software and its WYSIWYG environment. 

As far as the rest of the design, everything works together so perfectly that we wouldn’t change a thing. We love the navigation, the logo placement and size, the information is just the right amount and the CTAs draw the user in. Adding interactive features such as a video engages the reader.

Instructure is a high tech company with a beautifully designed website that shows just how easy their software might be to use as well. With so many features and other products, the website could have become overly complex but the design is simple and limited to only what matters. We love the design and think others can learn a lot about what to do right in their own web development projects by studying this one.

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