Ask the Readers: Which Websites Have the Best Designs?
Editor's Note: Congratulations to Karen, Mary, and Emily for winning this week's contest!
Exciting news! Wise Bread is gearing up for a redesign, and we would love to know which websites you think are especially pretty and user-friendly. Since there are a ton of innovative and otherwise spiffy sites out there, please limit your top picks to sites that, like Wise Bread, feature a bunch of articles — but unlike Wise Bread, they don't have to be all about personal finance!
Which websites have the best designs? What do you like about them? What changes would you like to see in Wise Bread's redesign?
Tell us which websites have the best designs and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
Win 1 of 3 $20 Amazon Gift Cards
We're doing three giveaways — here's how you can win!
Mandatory Entry:
- Post your answer in the comments below. One commenter will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
For Extra Entries:
- You can tweet about our giveaway for an extra entry. Also, our Facebook fans can get an extra entry too! Use our Rafflecopter widget for your chance to win one of the other two Amazon Gift Cards:
If you're inspired to write a whole blog post OR you have a photo on flickr to share, please link to it in the comments or tweet it.
Giveaway Rules:
- Contest ends Monday, May 11th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. Winners will be announced after May 11th on the original post. Winners will also be contacted via email.
- You can enter all three drawings — once by leaving a comment, once by liking our Facebook update, and once by tweeting.
- This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered, or associated with Facebook.
- You must be 18 and US resident to enter. Void where prohibited.
Good Luck!
Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.
Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
I like the Get Rich Slowly design because it's simple and user friendly
Web sites with the best designs have easy drop-down menus and not a lot of clutter. I also appreciate when there aren't pop up ads.
I like Wisebread's design. The main page is easy to navigate and the titles are descriptive. I hate when websites make me click next often (IE 10 things to save you money, and a separate page for each, just use one page please!).
The Kirkus website has a great design. Easy to access the info you want. You can still get info in articles and lists instead of the annoying popup and slideshow advertising format most sites are using. It's nice because it doesn't take forever for pages to load. I don't even look at some websites because it's all about advertising and impossible to read articles thanks to the format.
I like Self Magazine’s website design. When you hover over the tabs you can see the drop-down menu selections. And the entire site is easy to navigate. For Wise Bread’s redesign, I would like to see the “Ask the Readers” article centrally located near the top. Possibly highlighted in some way as a weekly attraction.
I like websites that don't over complicate things or are too stylized and choose looking chic over being user friendly. I like ones that have a search function, an easy drop down menu, an archive, etc..
I like the Wise Bread website. It's definitely one of the better blog layouts that I have seen. The articles are easy to find, and the ads are not intrusive.
I like websites that don't pop an ad up every time I click on a page. Also being able to look at articles in date order as well as by subject is important to me. Sometimes I just want to see what's been posted since my last visit. Other times, I'm looking for an answer to a specific question.
I really like the search filter options on Kohl's website for shopping. I don't waste endless time viewing items that I wouldn't purchase, and lets me focus in on what I'm really interested in purchasing.
Mint and SmartyPig are both simple, user-friendly, and pleasant enough to look at.
For shopping, I like Amazon.com's web design. It's easy to navigate. I like websites with easy to find buttons and clean, simple designs without many ads. The pull down menus must work and be easy to use. The Wise Bread website right now is pretty good.
The USAA website gets very high marks from users and from insiders across the industry. Both their banking and investment sites are easy to use and very logical. Even their phone app is one of the best out there.
I like websites that are fast and well organized like Amazon.
I guess Wisebread could look a little more aesthetically appealing, it's pretty buttoned up looking now. Maybe new fonts. But I think the layout itself is easy to navigate as is.
Very simple designs like Google are the best.
I follow a food blog thekitchn.com. I found it's design very very simple and a lot attractive. I want to make my blog look like this one day.
Kids websites have the best fun designs, like Disney or Nickelodeon. There sites are so colorful.
I like Zulily's design.
I don't have specific website names but I like designs that are easy to understand and make it easy to find what you are interested in.
My favorite website Online Sweepstakes has great design, easy to read and not cluttered.
I like the format on dearauthor.com. It's easily searched, not much clutter or advertising and the few graphics they use enhance to appearance rather than making it crazy.
I like the design of the fitnessista blog
I like websites that make it easy if it is a blog to scroll around through all the articles (while having category sections is great, sometimes I just want to see everything). Also scaling to phones is important to me.
I have always like Amazon, but lately, it keeps resetting for no reason! It's quite annoying. Choose wisely when you're considering a redesign! :)
I enjoy websites that are easy to navigate, and have a hierarchy that makes it easy to find what I am looking for. For informative websites, I don't like a lot of pop ups that make it hard to read articles. I do like wisebread's design, it is user friendly and easy to find what I am looking for. I do wish there was more of a hierarchy though. Some websites that I think are designed well include thepioneerwoman.com, alphabest.org, lynda.com. Thanks!
youneedabudget.com Bright, simple and user-friendly!
Mental Floss, Lifehacker, The Penny Hoarder and Swagbucks are all well-designed sites.
I like Exposure - it highlights photos and looks great!
I like simple and stylist designs. Wise bread seems to be covered with too many ads.
The Kitchn and Wise Bread, please do not change your format
I like the website design for the down---to---earth.blogspot.com blog. I like the garden pictures that are throughout and that you can find extra stuff without a lot of searching.
The best designed website is L.L. Bean. It's fast, functional and you can get to any product you're interested in by click fewer than 2 or 3 times. The graphics are exceptional, with a clear, crisp view of anything you're looking for. It does exactly what a well-designed site should do.
I like sites that are clean and easy to navigate. I hate when ads clutter up the site and make it take forever to load. I also can't stand when sites try to get too artsy and you can't find any of the navigation menus. I wouldn't say the wisebread site is difficult to navigate but I wouldn't say it's overly trendy either. I enjoy the easy navigation.
I love my friend Ali's website at Gimme Some Oven! Bright, clean, easy to use. Makes me want to come back every time.
I like the Larabar and Savse Smoothie website designs. I like that they use pictures of the ingredients instead of listing them out. I think visuals are more satisfying and can make things easier.
I like orientaltrading. I do a lot of ordering and their site is easy to navigate, colorful, all the links seem to work well, and the search actually takes me to what I need.
I like when a search bar is easy to find and really dislike slide shows and things that make me click a lot.
I think Amazon does it best.
I think The Penny Hoarder site has a nice design. I like that I can see many choices via the pictures and article titles, and then they also have just article titles on the side.
The font is a bit big for my taste. I'd make it smaller.
I like websites that are easy to follow. I am not very computer savvy.
I like Amazon's website design since it's easy to find what I'm looking for, and there isn't a lot of clutter.
I like to be able to sort posts by date