Ode to good design

For my newsletter and my own reference, I spend a fair bit of time thinking about what makes beautiful design. Below is something that ticks all the boxes for me. What would you pick?

2016.madebyfew — a website that showcases a design-tech-makers conference in the US. The site works aesthetically, commercially and from a UX standpoint. For me, it’s these manifold successes that qualify it as ‘beautiful digital design’. When you first land, a strong visual hierarchy is present in the form of the conference’s name, an illustration and a call to action — “Buy your ticket” . This simplicity supports the primary goal of selling tickets and is a format that adheres to Steve Krug’s — “don’t make them think” edict for usability.

At first glance, the site may looks quotidian— a call to action, a tag line, testimonials. However when you start to browse, touches of interactivity brings it to life. First the illustration of people shift. This effect aids the visual story; it’s like you are already there in the crowd at the conference. Throughout the site, the use of CSS is never gratuitous. Further down the page there are colourful shapes that shake slightly on hover. This align with the conferences’ brand identity; the users are makers and these blocks are ready, waiting to be combined into something else.

This site is also successful in terms of context. The creators have thought about the different environments that a user could encounter it in. It’s responsive. Hard decisions have been taken in order to achieve successful graceful degradation. A lot of content on a small screen could hinder a user from achieving their goal of purchasing a ticket. To counter this, on mobile, instead of the three quotes about the conference that we see on desktop, you find one.

Note that the homepage video is set up to play via a button — “Play Video”. In situations where internet speed is slow, this will provide a superior experience that gives the user control rather than loading a janky clip.

In sum, the time has been taken to both delight and to care for the user, resulting in a excellent user experience. Coupled with a relevant, memorable visual identity, it’s a winner!

Do you agree? What would you choose…?

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