Great design = Great websites?

Yes and no.

A recent Ski holiday to the Alps proved and long held belief of mine on what makes a truly great website.

Take a look at the two websites below:

A

(Click to enlarge)

B

(Click to enlarge)

Which do you think is the best designed website? Many of you would no doubt go for B.

Now let me ask you which you think I found the most helpful during my holiday and which website I came back to for information. The answer is A.

Why A?

A isn’t particularly well designed, boring some might say, but the reason behind my visit to both websites was to get information on the resort I was visiting. B looked ok but the information was hidden behind menus and flashy graphics, I got annoyed navigating around looking for information I couldn’t find. This is a fatal sin in the web design world, your website is there to serve a purpose, whether that is to pass on information or sell to your customers. If you frustrate your users you will lose them.

The perfect solution?

Is the content of A but with a modern and clean design that works for the user rather than against. That’s the kind of websites we build at Beo.