One thing I've noticed reviewing websites is that good sites do not need to be complex. In fact, oftentimes sites that are complex, either providing much more information than is necessary or using complicated elements such as animations, end up being confusing for site visitors.
Simple websites can be easy to create and must be easy to understand without sacrificing the essentials. A hotel website, for example, can be simple, but it must still provide a way for site visitors to book a room. I've reviewed five sites that accomplish the essential goals of a site in its niche while being easy to build and navigate. If you're looking to create one of your own, try Zarla's AI website builder.
Zarla checks that sites meet basic web standards for mobile and desktop. We also use Google's PageSpeed Insights, and WAVE, a service that evaluates accessibility for individuals with disabilities. PageSpeed scores and accessibility are important factors for search engine rankings. PageSpeed scores may not match user experience and can vary substantially.
Austin, Texas, U.S.
The Avery O Design website advertises hand-painted murals, illustrations, and graphic art by Austin artist Avery Orendorf.
I think this site captures the point of a simple website. The home page focuses on imagery, as it should for a visual artist. By combining a photo of the artist with one of her murals in the background, the hero image conveys both a sense of the art and the personality of the artist, something a lot of photo-oriented sites are missing. The text is also simple and to the point, quickly summing up what she does and what's special about it while making it easy to get in contact.
The focus on great imagery of the artist's work is brilliant for this site. I couldn't help but imagine getting one of these murals painted on my own home. She also does a good job providing information about herself, her artwork, her process, and her accomplishments on her blog and "About" page. Most pages have no contrast errors, according to WAVE.
I don't have many complaints about this site. Some people may want to see pricing information, but that may be highly dependent on the type of mural or other artwork being requested. Still, maybe an explanation of pricing would be useful. Maybe a few client reviews on the home page, to give people an idea of what it's like to work with her, would help potential clients make a decision.
The big, bright hero image looks really great on a desktop and set the tone for my first visit to the site. The grid layout of the gallery makes it easy to get a sense of her work at a glance and find examples that might interest you in particular. On Google's PageSpeed Insights report, the desktop site had a performance rating of 73/100.
The home page does a great job resizing to mobile, rearranging the text and hero image so they don't lose their impact. The gallery stacks up nicely below the hero image and the site is easy to navigate. I liked how tapping the hamburger menu causes the site to dash to the left, giving plenty of space for the menu and making it easy to read over a blank background. The mobile site had a performance score of 37/100 on Google's PageSpeed Insights report.
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Long & Short Barber Co. is a full-service barbershop that offers grooming experiences for men. The website highlights the company's high-quality work with a selection of crisp images, and its locations are prominently advertised on the home page for potential clients to easily find their closest branch. Again, simplicity really works for this site. The large image up top makes it clear what this company does, and with so few distractions, it's easy to find the "Book Now" button.
The simple website keeps your focus on what they do and how to book. The website's online booking process is intuitive and allows users to select their preferred barber, and they also have the option to buy a gift card. WAVE picked up only a few instances of insufficient contrast ratios.
While I love the simple design, I'd like to see more visible pricing info and reviews. Also, while the large home page images do get across what the company does, they don't give me a sense of what the haircuts actually look like. I'd like those two images to capture someone's entire face, all in full focus, so I can see what their hair looks like.
This simple design works great on a desktop, giving you an excellent view of the images, without the call-to-action buttons getting lost. The hamburger menu on the desktop site is a nice way to keep the focus narrow. Google's PageSpeed Insights test scored the website's SEO practices well, and its performance score was reasonable at 61/100.
Simplicity is even more of a bonus on a mobile site. By having few elements, the site is able to retain almost exactly the same look as the desktop when viewed on mobile. The content sections are well-organized across the site, but some of the text should be enlarged for optimal readability, and the color or placement of the hamburger menu icon could be adjusted on the home page to make it more visible. The site had a performance score of 33/100 on Google's PageSpeed Insights test.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Amani Hair Studio is a high-end hair salon that specializes in healthy haircare with organic treatments and maintenance routines.
This simple website lets their excellent photography shine, and the Amani Hair Studio's bright, intense hero image against the dark background really pops, as do the rest of the high-quality images the site offers. If you're building a hair salon website, shots like these, that fully capture the hairstyles, are what you'd want the focus to be. However, I'd suggest replacing the few stock photos on the home page with images that reflect their services.
The photography is given space to show off their hair styling, and I had no trouble finding the call-to-action buttons in this uncluttered design. I also like that the site swaps the traditional online booking form for an online inquiry form, allowing users to ask specific questions or request pricing details.
While most of the site is simple, the navigation bar is a bit busy. I would try to condense and combine some of these options, or maybe hide some under the hamburger menu, which, strangely, is where a contact form is hidden. Also, the home page image of the scissors seems like wasted space if they've got any more shots of their hairstyles lying around. WAVE detected a few dozen contrast and other errors. Finally, there appears to be a technical error on the "Services" page.
This site is very striking on a desktop, where the images and text have plenty of room and none takes away from the other. You can also easily purchase their favorite products from the salon's online store, which includes an intuitive checkout process.
I did find that some pages take quite a long time to load and contribute to clunky site navigation. According to Google's PageSpeed Insights test, the site's SEO practices could also be improved.
Unfortunately, the text and CTA walk all over the hero image in the mobile version of this site. Even though the busy desktop navigation bar is hidden under the hamburger menu, the text/button/image sandwich kills the simple vibe. I would reduce the size and quantity of text, shrink the CTA button, and push them just below the main image. The saving grace is that as you scroll down, the other images look great. I would replace the three stock photos with images of their hairstyles, though.
Pfaffenthal, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Tabor Food Concept serves up authentic Ethiopian food in Pfaffenthal, bringing a taste of African cuisine to the European city of Luxembourg.
The simple website is the kind of thing anyone with basic tech skills could whip up on a website builder in a few hours, and that's not a bad thing! The site provides authentic images of the food, their menu, and where you can find the food truck each day of the week. It's everything a food truck website needs, with nothing else cluttering it up, and I'm guessing it didn't break the business' budget either.
Simplicity allows you to find the information you need as a customer, whether you're visiting for the first time, trying to track their food truck down for a meal, or considering them for catering. The website performed well on WAVE, with just a few empty links and contrast errors detected.
I liked that they have a lot of images of their food, but I'd really like to see what the food looks like when served from the food truck. The photos all show it laid out on a dining table on plates. An "About" page would also be nice; I'd like to know more about the people making this food, and the business, techniques, ingredients, etc. Finally, an Instagram gallery might be a great way to show off customer images of their food and encourage social sharing.
This site performs very well on a desktop. On Google's PageSpeed Insights, the site scored 86/100 for accessibility and 82/100 for its performance. This is likely due to how simple it is. I would maybe increase the size of the thumbnails in the homepage image gallery and let it extend further down the page. Their small size makes them hard to appreciate at a glance.
The site also performed very well on mobile. Google's PageSpeed Insights test gave it 86/100 for accessibility and a modest 59/100 for its overall performance. The homepage image thumbnails stack up and each expands to fill the screen, making them more interesting on a mobile device.
Canada
Assist-her specializes in providing creative and administrative virtual assistants to Canada-based businesses. Simple design, in the case of this site, means a focus on text that explains what the company does, how it works, and what makes it different. The text gets to the point and makes it clear that you'll be working with assistants who live in Canada.
The company's specialization in female empowerment is reflected in the site's "Meet The Team" page, which gives users a holistic overview of its women-focused business practices and adds some personality to a site that does seem a bit impersonal.
The site keeps you focused on the message, doing a concise job of explaining Assist-her and what makes it special. The "Meet The Team" page does a great job telling the stories of the founders and the people you could be working with. WAVE picked up very few contrast errors on the website, indicating good readability.
This site doesn't need flashy photos. Indeed, they could distract from the text. But using bland stock photos almost everywhere on the site makes it feel impersonal, and like it might not be a legitimate business. Images and links to their actual work would bolster confidence in the site. Moving info on the founders and assistants from the "Meet the Team" page to the home page, or somewhere more prominent, could also add personality and legitimacy to the site.
The desktop site displays all images and content optimally with a performance score of 100/100 on Google's PageSpeed Insights test. The well-spaced text ensures visitors are informed of the company's services, and the clear CTA buttons ensure an intuitive browsing experience. However, Google's test indicates that there's room for improvement with the desktop version's SEO and accessibility practices.
Some of the black text disappears on top of black background images, including parts of the main headline, which make it illegible. The mobile site is very fast though. Google's PageSpeed Insights test gives the site a score of 88/100 in the performance category, a higher score than we see for most mobile sites.
Using the least amount of text and elements while retaining the core functions necessary for a website in its niche.
If the site sacrifices important information or functionality for simplicity, it's probably too simple. For example, a website for a clothing store shouldn't eliminate pricing or a shopping cart
We like Avery O Design, Long & Short Barber Co., and other sites we cover in our article. These sites use simplicity to their advantage, calling attention to the most important information about their site, while retaining the most important information and functions.
