As much as 75% of a website’s credibility comes from its design, while 94% of first impressions are also design-related.
Websites with a clean layout, prudent use of colors and intuitive architecture provide a superior user experience, which makes them potential conversion-generating, trust-building machines.
In this article, we take a look at the 12 best clean website designs that command attention, helping these brands, with the assistance of a web design company, create an immediate impact on their audience.
Table of Contents
1. Instabase By Baunfire
Standout features:
- Sticky CTA
- Tasteful accent colors
- Sharp lines and alternating light and dark blocks
Instabase is a platform for automating unstructured data in business processes. The tool’s website, designed by Baunfire, is as slick as the product itself, reflecting its usability and aesthetics while keeping visitors informed and engaged.
While the overall impression of the website is that of its plentiful white space (which lends to its clean website design), its appeal is in combining it with subtle motion effects and looping animations, sharp angle objects and tasteful accent colors.
The main menu navigation switches from light to dark mode once the user starts scrolling. The homepage (top of the funnel that educates the prospect) consists of sufficient copy on the problems Instabase solves and other UVPs, keeping the focus on the benefits for the user. The user conversion is facilitated by the sticky Get a Demo button on the top right.
Alternating black and white blocks help accentuate certain pieces of content. For instance, user reviews and case studies stand out quite visibly against a darker background.
2. Luxlet By Hantha Die Webexperten
Standout features:
- Minimal use of text
- Lots of white space
- Both art and copy highlight the brand’s USP
The minimalist website for Luxlet, an Italian brand making wooden, metal-free beds, was developed by Hantha Die Webexperten creative agency. The natural element of their product is apparent right off the bat, with an image of a misty forest gracing the opening screen of the website, accompanied by a suitable brand credo “Nature in the bedroom.”
In the top right, an unconventional, circled hamburger menu icon opens full-screen navigation, with very little text and plenty of white space. The animated button also switches copy from “Menu” to “Close” when opened.
Scrolling down the page, its economical use of messaging becomes quite apparent. With no more text than necessary, Luxlet’s website breathes freely, unburdened by an excess of visual or written content.
Each touchpoint of this user journey ends with a link pointing to a page of interest. These are educational and informational pages for the brand’s assortment of beds, its materials and the benefits they bring to consumers.
3. Croing Agency
Standout features:
- Retro 3D aesthetics above the fold
- Great portfolio showcase
- Mish-mash of animated and static elements
The website for Croing creative agency starts off with a bang: a psychedelic background with a slowly rotating, glossy metallic brand logo that traces its way back to the early days of computer-generated 3D animations. Clicking on the light/dark mode switch in the top left corner creates an immediate “negative” of the default theme.
The full-screen menu opens a black panel with large, white text aligned to the left. A hover effect transforms the typography into its light version. Scrolling down, the website takes on a more elaborate tone: animated backgrounds and videos, “grungy” effects, varied fonts and mouseover effects are all a display of the agency’s tour de force.
Particularly impressive is the agency’s display of past works. Large photos with a text-over effect and an animated showcase to the right take up the entire screen. This clean modern website design ends with an effective call-to-action.
4. Hipcool Studio
Standout features:
- Subtle animation effects in their portfolio
- Concise homepage
- Extremely simple navigation
As clean and minimal as it gets. That is the best way to describe Hipcool Studio digital agency’s website. It abandons the notion of complex, asymmetrical layouts and grids, doesn’t embrace garish colors and is a firm believer in keeping the homepage as brief as possible.
The colorway and opening image give away a slightly retro vibe, mostly due to the photography’s choice of filters. A serif font is classy and elegant and large enough to be legible on any screen. Carefully packed works from Hipcool’s portfolio are neatly displayed in a precise arrangement.
The navigation consists of four menu items that stay on the screen as the user scrolls down and a simple email call-to-action in the footer.
5. Roman Osypenko
Standout features:
- Each segment is neatly divided
- A precise geometrical grid
- Flashy intro animation
Digital designer Roman Osypenko’s personal website begins with a flashy, animated display of his name before opening a predominantly dark-themed website with a photo of a prism with a slightly grainy effect. The very effective website opener is complemented by a sticky horizontal main menu on the right.
Down the line, the website follows a pattern of divided sectors, each devoted to Osypenko’s career: his skillset, video showreel, design approach and so on. The sections are literally separated by lines that follow a very precise geometry.
A modern and legible sans-serif font is used throughout. The homepage funnel ends with a lead-capturing submission form. Check out best personal website designs in this article.
6. IASTI By Root Studio
Standout features:
- A striking color combination
- Smooth animation on the main menu
- Fast-loading UI
Developed by Root Studio, International Air & Space Training Institute Newark’s (IASTI) website is a stunning display of colors, simple navigation and fast UX. Given its “celestial” nature, the website is mainly navy blue with striking accents in neon teal and shades of purple and blue.
Although mostly static, the website comes to life with the animated main menu icon that spreads across the upper right portion of the screen to create a curved visual effect. The website’s main pages stand out clearly in black font against the white background.
Moving down the homepage funnel, the user “soars” through a combination of informative copy and CTAs with rounded edges that invite prospects to apply. The website’s news section displays each article in an inventive, “flying formation” layout, with pieces aligned in a 3-column grid with uneven spacing between them.
7. Snipp Studio
Standout features:
- Custom illustrations
- Extremely minimalist design
- No color except on their portfolio
The web design company, Snipp Studio, has a website that immediately communicates its unique value proposition, leaving no doubt in the minds of the visitors. The most minimal website on this list, its sea of white space engulfs all other elements, making them stand out in quite a spectacular manner.
A custom sans serif font in black is used across all headings, menu items and other textual elements. The main menu navigation opens from a hamburger icon in the top right and contains the website’s page links and a quaint hand-made illustration.
The only colored elements on this website are the agency’s portfolio entries. They are uniformly arranged in a 3-column shape. The rest of the homepage consists of more custom illustrations – some of which are animated – that communicate a very clearly laid-out plan of action the agency takes when designing any website.
8. Morris Adjmi Architects By The Future Forward
Standout features:
- Massive images and a minimal layout above the fold
- Horizontal reel display of portfolio
- Minimalist menu
Morris Adjmi Architects website, designed and developed by The Future Forward agency, is a contrasting affair: above the fold, massive, full-screen images alternate in a carousel gallery, showcasing the company’s prime creations. Only the company’s initials in the left corner and a minimal menu in the opposite one co-exist with this visual display.
Below the fold, things get much more spartan: the types of buildings the firm designs are organized in corresponding categories and are showcased in a horizontal moving reel. A very slow movement of these reels makes it easy for visitors to look at each building model without pausing.
The company-related news section ends the homepage and adds the only splash of color besides the images.
9. InkSpace By Lobo
Standout features:
- Large images above the fold
- Logos and the menu blend in
- A very straightforward layout
InkSpace is a firm specializing in the design and construction of homes and renovation of listed buildings. Their website by Lobo agency kicks off the user journey with hi-res, professional photographs across the entire screen. White InkSpace logo and the discrete menu icon in the top right blend in with the images.
The rest of the website uses a very straightforward layout and design, with short blocks of text following the images lined up in one column. A mouseover effect changes the photo to a different presentation of the same home, either from another angle or location.
On both sides of the screen are the two textual links: Architecture and Interiors. They take the visitor to the website sections dedicated to these different areas of expertise.
10. o3mist by Bollina By Leapy Inc.
Standout features:
- One-page UX
- No navigation menu
- Light, airy feel
o3mist is a household air deodorizer and sterilizer by the Japanese company Bollina. Their website, designed by Leapy Inc., conveys the clean, minimal imagery often associated with ozone water generators and similar objects.
The photos - and the overall website overlay - have been given a "misty" treatment, which is another on-brand moment. Gentle white and blue shades, clean fonts and the occasional droplet as a visual candy complement the elegant design of the product.
There is no menu navigation, the entire user journey takes place on one page. But there are several navigational tools to the right, such as progress indicator and support button.
11. Wavemaker By The Web Kitchen
Standout features:
- Flashy intro
- Good combination of accent colors
- Well-executed animations
The website for Wavemaker, a global media network, is provided by The Web Kitchen and kicks off with a lengthy, interactive intro that invites users to "breakthrough" by clicking while delivering creative messages that amplify the company's work.
Upon landing on the main page, the user is faced with a choice: click on the three images denoting the company's work, people and story or head to the main menu that opens across the entire screen with a flashy effect.
Though mostly dark, the website also uses white and orange accent colors. The three stand out in stark contrast to each other, creating a very sharp look and giving both pleasure and relief to the visitor's eyes.
12. Lucas Di Grassi By Duck Design Studio
Standout features:
- Striking green accents
- "Fast" design denoting the subject's sport
- Slick main menu
Lucas Di Grassi is a Brazilian Formula E race car driver that also competed in Formula 1 during his illustrious career. Duck Design Studio is behind the stunning website that covers his entire career and off-track initiatives.
Starting out as a black-white-green affair, the website takes on some color and movement as the user scrolls past different geometrical elements, curvy and angular lines featuring video outtakes from the driver's heralded moments. The website is bilingual and makes a seamless jump from English to Di Grassi's native Portuguese.
The main menu opens across the entire screen and animates the links with a green effect as the user hovers over them - a color purposefully chosen to signify Di Grassi's sustainability efforts.
