Month: January 2025

The 5 Most Popular Website Design Types

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Website design types vary, but in my 20 years of doing web design, I’ve worked on all of them. Blogs, eCommerce sites, event websites, online magazines, business websites, nonprofit websites, web forums, portfolio websites. You name it and I’ve probably worked on a few.

Because many of my clients are new to website design, I wanted to create a list of popular website designs. I don’t consider this an exhaustive list. However, 90% of my work falls into one of these categories.

Brochure Website

The brochure-style website is the most popular style of website that I’ve worked on; think of this type of website as an online brochure or virtual business card. It’s usually short and to the point. This type of site is under ten pages and usually focuses on a product or service. Typically, you can make contact via the website, learn about hours and locations. I include restaurants, auto repair shops and other ‘mainstreet’ businesses in this category. I also call this style of website design  “brochureware”.

Informational (Small Business and Non-profit) Website 

The informational website design is for small businesses and non-profits. While this website design is similar to the  brochure style it contains more information. This website could include information around bylaws, financials, organizational mission, vision, locations and ways to connect with officers and staff. This website design is kind of like a grown-up brochure website; more responsibilities and user needs to serve.

eCommerce Website

The eCommerce website can be standalone like Amazon or eBay or it can be integrated into larger informational website. For instance, a small business website for a restaurant might also have eCommerce functionality to purchase gift cards. A non-profit website might sell things related to their mission, such as a construction safety organization that also sells discounted safety equipment to its members. The eCommerce website style varies, but it’s always transactional with the buying or selling of goods and services as its core call-to-action.

Event and Event Registration Website

At the intersection of the eCommerce and informational website is the event and event registration website. I think of the event website design as one that showcases events and provides a way to register online. Event websites can be standalone such as for music festivals or religious gatherings. I’ve also integrated event websites into eCommerce and informational websites. For example, a small business could sell trainings, where a user could register to attend.  A non-profit might hold retreats or seminars where a user can register and buy tickets online.

Blog/Online Magazine/Content Website

The blog, online magazine or content website(i.e. Vice, YouTube or Pinterest) is designed for users to engage and interact with content. Content takes many forms: Watching funny cat videos, looking at retro interior design photos, reading about putting Ikea furniture together or just the daily news. These are the oldest kinds of websites: People going online expressing their views, perspectives and life experiences and sharing them with others. These types of sites have been around for a long time, but they haven’t changed. ‘Content is King’ and  creating fresh content is central to getting website visits and good search rankings.

That’s it, in a nutshell.

When I work on a website design, the goal is always the same: Help the user complete a task quickly. In order to help the user, you have to understand the user and which kinds of website designs work best.

Getting it Right – Navigating Web Design Ambiguity

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Jonathan Walter has written a great article, Navigating Ambiguity, at UX Matters. It’s part of a series of columns that focuses on enterprise UX, or as he puts it ‘designing experiences for people at work’ – That’s what drew me in, initially because there’s much written about new development and design from a UX perspective, but enterprise work is often the overlooked and neglected ‘other’ that’s not considered very glamorous and doesn’t get the attention it deserves where UX is concerned.

As I began reading the article, thought, I realized that he was a kindred spirit of sorts, because I use the phrases: “Navigating ambiguity” or in jest, “parsing the nebula” just about every day when solving problems with digital experience and software functionality development, roadmapping, etc. We, individually, and as a team, have to understand what we’re trying to do before we can map it, plan it, work on it, but particularly, deliver it. Jonathan provides some great insights on that.

Get comfortable with not knowing everything

Jonathan writes:

“Even in situations in which you feel alone in your lack of knowledge, you must become comfortable with saying, “I don’t know.” In his Forbes article, “The Power of Saying ‘I Don’t Know’,” Gaurav Gupta states: “We are conditioned to having and providing quick, confident answers as a sign of competence and leadership. We behave as though any gaps in knowledge should be hidden at all cost. But is this desire to have an answer—and have it quickly—actually helping you? How often do we trade factual accuracy and thoughtfulness for immediacy? Why do people find it so hard to say, ‘I don’t know’?”

Ask (the right) questions

I would say, just ask question, as you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s a journey of a thousand miles, start with one step. Additionally, Jonathan adds:

“…ask the following W questions to reduce ambiguity and approach a problem from a higher-level perspective:
  • What problems does this product or capability solve?
  • Who will use it?
  • Why will they use it?
  • When or in which context will they use it?
“…Once you understand this high-level information, you can ask progressively more specific questions.”

Provide a vision

This has been hugely important for me. I never had any idea how often I’d have to repeat, dramatize, articulate and visually represent my vision for product or experience. Jonathan puts a finer point on this that I really appreciate:

“…your vision—even if it is overly aspirational or flawed—provides a North Star that product-team members can keep in sight as they develop a product. It can also serve as a useful artifact for identifying which features are in scope for early releases and which you should defer to later releases. “Just take care to avoid leading stakeholders to believe that the vision is final.”

I’ve only scratched the surface on Jonathan’s great article, but I highly recommend you give it a read; if you’re interested in UX and process, you won’t be disappointed and the information is as practical and steeped in experience as it is easy to understand and put into practice. Again, you can find that article here.