Once in awhile we are asked to design websites that are loaded with content. Copy heavy website designs require a well planned and structured layout, hierarchy and balance — all essential for maintaining navigation and readability throughout the entire site.
As the web becomes increasingly intertwined in our everyday lives (like it not enough already) the more print publications and news papers are moving towards online media, in addition to blogs, this also results in websites maintaining and taking influences from their printed form — relying heavily on layout and hierarchy.
Below are 25 content heavy websites that utilize a beautiful structure, layout and hierarchy in their design.
Fusion Ads
zendesk
Blik
The Swish Life
The Humble Gourmand
The Feast
Lord Likely
9513
We Are The Friction
Revive Africa
Pure Grips
Housing Works
Nosotros
Livestream
CSR360
Comhaltas
Checkout app
Change.org
AIGA
Agentia Kairos
Design Shack
Simplified Safety
The New Yorker
Good
What are some of your favorite well-laid out website designs?
I absolutely LOVE this post, especially your points regarding hierarchy and layout.
When it comes down to it, visitors go to a website to retrieve content, read it and then move on. Content-heavy sites (aka lots of words) require A LOT of thought and planning.
Bravo!
Really great selection you’ve found here. And might I add, its nice seeing articles like this, rather than just “20 pretty yellow websites!” or such lists that usually don’t have a lot of substance.
[...] 25 Content Heavy Websites with Beautiful Structure, Layout and Hierarchy [...]
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Love this post.
Evidence that some designers should stop shouting the word simplicity so hard.
Instead they should get comfy with grids, layout and page hierarchy – all the ingredients for honoring it’s complexity by organization.
You can’t simplify a news website.
Nice sample list! Will be coming back to this for inspiration when plagued with content on one page. Good mag is always a good example on this, check out their print version for inspiration also.
Great post as usual. I was just working on an IA for a content heavy homepage and there are some great ideas to be gleaned from here.
Also, I love the irony of the Design Shack screenshot showing an article for “35 Marvelously Minimal Websites”.
The biggest issue I think most companies have when it comes to content online is that they feel like everything needs to be on one page and “above the fold.”
These examples show that you really don’t need to clutter up a page with content. Space it out, don’t hesitate to use “below the fold” strategies, and you’ll be fine. :)
Fantastic list of examples. Content-heavy sites have the tendency to overwhelm.
You know, everyone wants SIMPLICITY and minimal design, but it doesnt always work that way. I love that you’ve showcased sites jam-packed with content. I love it. Great job.
@nickwichman
Exactly Tanner. I loved this postrecently about just teasing the user and they will scroll down. Cramming stuff above the fold just turn people away. Don’t trat the screen as a poster.
http://www.cxpartners.co.uk/thoughts/the_myth_of_the_page_fold_evidence_from_user_testing.htm
These are great examples of how sites with tons of content to offer, can make it all look tidy and organized, yet still make you want to dig in and hang around awhile.
Good job on the list!
These are great. I’ve always love Lord Likely’s design.
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Good resource a lot of Happy Cog sites in that bunch.
Wonderful article!
It’s not easy making a site with loads of content look nice.
I particularly like Blik.
The combination of the illustrations and line work juxtaposed to the photography is outstanding!
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Thanks and Regards
Noel for Nopun.com
a professional graphic design studio
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Having redone my site lately I decided to add a lot of content (and keep adding) to best maximise my online presence, this has been good from an SEO point but was nearly driven insane trying to organise the content, definately one of the hardest projects I have done. I found drop down menus with good parent categries was the way to go, the familarity with off line app structures help draw the user and offering multiple paths to the information they want reinforced this… just my opinion and I’m certanly no .com millionaire (yet!!!)
Wow, what a great topic to post an article / showcase about! A common question I am also asked and now we have a great resource to refer too.
Great post – it is sometimes difficult to figure out how to “unclutter” a really text intensive site without making it look really dead and boring. These examples are inspirational.
Thanks for sharing these.
Really great designs but I was slightly misled by the post title. What I expected to see were sites which had 100s of pages and examples of how best to present multiple levels of navigation. Am struggling with this problem on a site I’m responsible for and would love some inspiration!
Well, what can I say? Brian Hoff, you are simply outstanding. Your articles are just perfect and to the point. There is no flaw what-so-ever. I like to read your articles as they are informative too. Hope to see more from your side.
Same as Darren, I thought this was a post about navigation and how to cope with hundreds of pages, sections, etc. Great post and examples nonetheless!
I love websites with a lot of graphics but most of the time it slows it way down. As far as content goes, as long as it’s legible and easy to locate, I don’t think there’s a limit to how much content you can have.
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I think its important that a main page directs attention to a specific area. Sometimes the pages become so busy they don’t direct potential customers to the important information you want emphasied.
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Content heavy websites definitely take a lot more planing than other sites. Sometimes it can be a struggle to make use of white space but the samples you have posted all are nicely done and don’t look overly busy. Thanks for the inspiration. Pure Grips is my pick of the bunch, but they are all have very nice designs indeed.
Justin – Big Click Studios
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These are some amazingly inspirational designs, nice post! Keep up the awesome work, I’ll be checking back for your next post :)
Those examples are not *that* content heavy – have seen many with a lot more content that are still easy enough to view (good typography, white space, not too deep, in-page tabbed content, etc).
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What a great post – a lot of times, websites are unclear and difficult to navigate through. The use of a few basic design principles really can improve the look and feel of a website. Thanks for sharing.
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lovely list, thanks for this. The Swish life is my favourite. So nice and clean.
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Wow, they’re all so nice! Really very nice showcase man! ;)
Thanks so much for including the PURE Grips website alongside a lot of other great work.
Thanks!
Sam King, {e} House Studio
This is a great list. Nice to see structure and typography set a hierarchy and organization. Also, thanks for including PURE Grips in with these other beauties!
Great article! Heavyweight sites is our future web with a LOT of information flows.
I too was slightly misled about the title indicating copy heaviness. I was thinking i was about to look at pages an pages of text. That being said these are some outstanding website designs.
The one word that I did not see in any of your reviews is the world “color”. One of THE things that makes web design exciting, amongst many other things is how much more power the positive generation of color can be, as opposed to the reflective or negative generation of color that the offset printing process produces (read Arnheim all of the visual addicts out there -I’m one too!). You have captured that beautifully here and integrated with intelligent design systems. Thumbs up!
Best,
Peter Darnell,
Principal/Design Director
Visible Works Design
Great list! :)
Content heavy sites can be tricky, getting a clear hierarchy and structure that still lets the user find the right information fast is crucial and these sites do it with ease.