The Bright Design Site of The Week Award & Hall of Fame
As a web design and SEO agency, we come across lots of different websites every day, many of which are designed beautifully, built inspirationally, or optimised perfectly – and we don’t want to let that excellent work go uncelebrated.
That’s why we began the Site of The Week Competition: so that we could give due merit to those web designers, developers and SEO’s out there who are already doing an exceptional job for their company or personal websites.
This page used to be updated every week with the latest Site of The Week Winner, along with each week’s runner up who will receive the Commendation Award from our team, however we now dedicate a weekly post on our blog to giving the weekly winners a shout out. You can also keep up to date with the Site of The Week competition on our social feeds or by following #SOTW on Twitter.
The competition is judged every Monday morning where our team will each put forward a site found as we’ve navigated the web the week before, and along with any other sites nominated by you, judge and vote for a winner.
How we judge the Site of the Week Competition
The winning website is decided on a number of factors:
– Unique features
– Website layout and overall design
– User journey
– User experience
– Site navigation
– Site structure
– Website tone and feel and its effectiveness with relation to use/and or brand
– Use of colour
– Interactive features
– Website speed
– Keyword optimised content
– Other on-site optimisation
These are just some of the factors our team take into account when deciding on a Site of The Week Winner. However, we also take into account the size of the company/organisation and give more weighting to smaller companies or budgets, since doing a good job on these budgets is a difficult task – and one that we too know well that’s why we believe that every website, no matter what the size, deserves its fair share of credit.
Announcing the Site of The Week Winner
The winner is then usually announced on our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn on Monday afternoon, and shall be added to our Site of The Week Hall of Fame below. If you are a Site of The Week Winner or Runner Up, you may claim your Bright Design Site of The Week Winner or Commendation Badge, respectively. You may publish this badge on your website or any of your promotional materials, providing the badge links back to the Bright Design website or this page.
Claiming your Site of The Week Winner or Commendation Badge
To claim your Site of the Week Winner or Commendation Badge simply send us an email and we’ll send you your badge – it’s as simple as that! Then feel free to use it wherever you like to promote the good work you’re doing, and link back to this page* so that your readers or customers can see your name on our Hall of Fame!
We have a range of badges available to suit your website, from our classic Bright Design orange, to greyscale to simple black and white. In your email let us know if you’d like all three or if you’d prefer just one specific colour.
This Week’s Site of the Week Winner!
Site of the Week Winner January 30nd 2018
Our Site of The Week goes to Primed Mind for their engaging design, utilising animation, video and an usual mix of colours within the colour scheme to complement the site content. Check out their site here: primedmind.com
Site of The Week Hall of Fame
Site of the Week Winner January 22nd 2018
The penultimate SOTW winner for this week’s website design contest in January goes to seabrookcrisps.com, whose small features engaging the user really add to the experience and engagement with the brand, as well as encourage dwell time to improve their SEO. These include: their mini crisp quiz on each individual page; unique games on each crisp flavour landing page; the crisp packets that vigourously shake on the homepage when hovered over.
The design is simple and the use of bold brand colours keeps the design fun and reinforces the brand messaging. Great work here that we can’t resist celebrating! (We mean the website over the crisps, but we are starting to get a bit peckish now…).
Site of the Week Runner-Up January 22nd 2018
Our Site of The Week Runner-Up followed in our winning website close behind this week, with some unique web features including a moving logo and interesting scroll features that separate it out from other designs is 8020comms.com. The way the boxes move with the paralaxing background images but at a slower speed has a very peculiar effect and the subtle animations are very tastefully integrated. Overall the team really rated this site, but it could improve on clearer navigation and their calls to action. Other than that however, great work!
Site of the Week Winner January 15th 2018
Pottermore’s interactive page on their site allows a user to visually explore the entire exterior of Hogwarts. Their 3D interactive section adds a unique element to their overall clean and user friendly website. Explore the ins and outs of Hogwarts, a must-do for all Harry Potter fans!
Site of the Week Winner January 8th 2018
Our Site of The Week Award goes to The Fine Cheese Company for their simplistic but visual design, and cheese and wine matcher feature which helps the website successfully serve its audience and users needs. The navigation is simple and the use of colour throughout is very vintage, which complements their brand and the style their demographic would enjoy.
Take a look at their website here for inspiration:
Site of the Week Winner December 4th 2017
Our Site of The Week Award goes to The Chapar for their sleek website design, and engaging, visual customer sign up process. The quality of their product and brand really comes through with the personal touch of the customer trunk slider, showcasing not only their stylised and personalised products, but the care the designers put into each project.
The website really works well for the market, and the team are exceptionally pleased to present this week’s award to The Chapar and offer them a huge congratulations for their work on their beautiful website. Check out their website below:
Site of the Week Runner Up December 4th 2017
Our Site of The Week Commendation Award goes to the National Space Centre for their great usability, without looking cluttered. All user needs are addressed above the fold on the homepage for quick navigation – another website built with their users in mind:
Site of the Week Winner November 27th 2017
Our Site of The Week Award goes to Signomatic.co.uk for the website’s exceptional functionality on their design page, simple user joinery and overall great user experience. The SEO team also merited the website content and onsite optimisation, noting the different pages optimised for each different sign use. Clean, simple, and we love it!
Site of the Week Runner Up November 27th 2017
This week our Site of The Week Commendation Award goes to a simple but effective website, that just works: Crate Hire Express. The small pieces of animated text on the homepage, flicking to show the many various uses their crates have and industries that use them is a fun and unique feature, their ‘most popular crates’ feature offers a great user experience and the simple user journey, with clear pricing (unlike some of their competitors) offers immediate value to customers and helps conversions. Great job!
Site of the Week Winner November 20th 2017
This really beautiful, engaging and clean website for Bicester Village is as helpful as it is handsome! This week we’re awarding them with our Site Of The Week trophy title of Winner. Their onsite weather feature and super useful side panel are both excellent features and the homepage video banner immediately engages users – check out their website and get inspiration for your next web build!
Site of the Week Runner Up November 20th 2017
We don’t usually nominate our own clients but we thought we could allow this website a commendation, as the designers (whoever they are) have done a pretty spiffing job. Therefore our Site Of The Week Commendation Award goes to our client Barras for their clean but visual design, easy to follow user journey and trust signals.
Site of the Week Winner November 13th 2017
Our Site of The Week Award this week goes to Henry J Socks (www.henryjsocks.co.uk) for their unique concept & simple, smooth user journey and user experience. Our team loved the way their use of bold colour complemented their brand and fun feel, whilst the imagery and simple user journey offers quality and luxury. A very functional and beautiful website and a really great idea. Who wouldn’t want socks delivered to their door?
Site of the Week Runner Up November 13th 2017
The Glass At Work website was close runner up this week for our Site of The Week Award, noted for it’s great functionality and tailored user interface. With the option to preview any office partition and toggle the size such as the height and width of your chosen partition design, it offers real usefulness and visualisation to their product. Whilst the navigation is a bit too cluttered to allow them to be our winner this week, certain icons such as the sound icons within the navigation showing how many decibels the partitioning can minimise add extra usefulness to the user and were highly commended by the team. Big congratulations to those at Glass At Work.
Site of the Week Winner November 6th 2017
Our Site of The Week Award goes to Thomson & Scott Skinny Champagne for their unique floating products on their product pages & bubble animation within their SKINNY homepage text. Our team love the website design and simple user experience – the features all work really well together! Congrats also go to this site for running their site on HTTPS; this is key to current SEO and web good-practice. Great work all round!
Site of the Week Runner Up November 6th 2017
This Site of The Week Commendation Award was a difficult choice, but in the end lost by only one vote. The runner’s up position went to www.molecularproducts.com for their unique video panels on the homepage & clean website design and layout. The imagery used gives a very professional feel to the site, and focuses on the many applications available for the product and bringing it to life – literally on the homepage with their engaging and interactive video!
Site of the Week Winner October 30th 2017
Our final Site of The Week Award in October goes to Warm.co.uk for their on-site content optimisation, trust messages on every page, and use of various forms of website navigation to continue to push users down the sales funnel.
The use of the cat draped comfortably on the radiator immediately puts across a cosy and friendly feel to the site, the use of warm orange adds to the warmth while the blue reminds us of the water involved in the boilers they deal with every day.
Calls to action litter the site also, with the free quote message pushed successfully throughout the site, making for an excellent CRO-ed site. Congrats to the team at Warm.co.uk!
Site of the Week Runner Up October 30th 2017
Our Site of The Week Commendation Award goes to Principality Plastics Warehouse for their busy but effective design! Focusing on fulfilling its user’s needs, the design highlights price points and sales, as well as the sheer number of products offered, constantly providing information. The use of sales red again pushes the sales points, and the mega menu makes navigation easy in addition to their tiled image menu on the homepage.
The Live Chat bar is also highly engaging, although this could pop up a little later ideally, to give users more time ton take in the vast amount of website content. Really great work though, and we would love to hear more about how effective these CRO techniques are actually working for the business – do get in touch PPW!
Site of the Week Winner October 23rd 2017
The penultimate Site of The Week Award this month goes to SB Joinery for their beautiful website design that very successfully utilises imagery to target their high-end market. The team also wanted to give particular merit to the site’s quirky hand-crafted feel of the iconology and use of font, as well as the easy navigation and great user experience. Our SEO team also wanted to congratulate those at SB Joinery who have optimised the site for search, as they are ranking well in their area. Great work to the designers and developers at SB Joinery – keep it up and claim your badge today to show off all your hard work!
Site of the Week Winner October 16th 2017
Our Site of The Week Award goes to Duolingo for their excellent free language learning resources, great layout & user experience across devices and languages and superb functionality. It’s a great site and a really useful tool – so if you’re learning a language, check it out!
Site of the Week Winner October 9th 2017
Our Site of The Week Award goes to La Dogana Food for their excellent mobile-friendly site, beautiful layout and design & animated icons. The team really loved the website from a design perspective and felt the English/Italian worked well across translations of the site.
Site of the Week Winner October 2nd 2017
For this week’s Site of the Week Competition, the winner was unanimously agreed to be Removals London for an incredible number of merits that the team noted. Some of these features included their unique puzzle theme and iconology, excellent integration of SEO content into the spacious design, imagery, and icon animations such as the hover feature on their phone and sale icons that certainly worked to engage users and encourage click throughs. Great work, and congratulations from all of us at the Bright Design team!
Site of The Week Winner September 25th 2017
This week’s Site of the Week Winner goes to to Zendesk for their use of animations and animated icons, great user experience and clean layout. Kudos from the Bright Design team!
Site of The Week Winner September 18th 2017
Our Site of The Week Commendation Award goes to Calm for their use of JavaScript video on the homepage banner, simple (and therefore relaxing) layout and colours, and engaging scroll features.
Site of The Week Winner September 11th 2017
Original Source
originalsource.co.uk | @OriginalSource.GB | @originalsource
Site of The Week Runner Up September 11th 2017
Joules
joules.com | @Joules | @Joulesclothing
Site of The Week Winner September 4th 2017
Wyevale Garden Centre
wyevalegardencentres.co.uk | @WyevaleGC | @WyevaleGC
Site of The Week Winner August 28th 2017
The Cotswold Company
cotswoldco.com | CotswoldCo | CotswoldCompany
Site of The Week Winner August 21st 2017
Electro Threads
Site of The Week Winner August 14th 2017
Mick’s Garage
micksgarage.com | @MicksGarage | @micksgarage
Site of The Week Runner Up August 14th 2017
Hoseasons
hoseasons.co.uk/give-it-a-go/cycling
Site of The Week Winner August 7th 2017
Calzone Kitchen
the-calzone-kitchen.myshopify.com | @TheCalzoneKitchen | @calzonekitchen
Site of The Week Winner July 31st 2017
The Lounges
Site of The Week Winner July 27th 2017
Camping In The Forest
campingintheforest.co.uk | @Camping_CITF
Site of The Week Runner Up July 27th 2017
The Trixta
Site of The Week Winner July 17th 2017
Harvest
Site of The Week Runner Up July 17th 2017
S.T.Holford Plumbing & Heating Ltd
Site of The Week Winner July 10th 2017
Porcelain Tiles
Site of The Week Runner Up July 10th 2017
Gardens Galore
Site of The Week Winner July 3rd 2017
Kettlebell Kitchen
www.kettlebellkitchen.co.uk | @kettlebellKMCR
Site of The Week Runner Up July 3rd 2017
P & Co
Site of The Week Winner June 27th 2017
Northampton Dog Walker
northamptondogwalker.co.uk | @NhantsDogWalker
Site of The Week Runner Up June 27th 2017
One Wood Floors
Site of The Week Winner June 19th 2017
Cleanipedia June 19th 2017
cleanipedia.com/gb | @cleanipedia
Site of The Week Runner Up June 19th 2017
Bidvine
Site of The Week Winner June 12th 2017
Luxaflex
Site of The Week Runner Up June 12th 2017
AVS Fencing
avsfencing.co.uk | @avsfencing
Site of The Week Winner June 5th 2017
Mutts and Hounds
muttsandhounds.co.uk | @MuttsAndHounds
Site of The Week Runner Up June 5th 2017
Dance Depot
dancedepot.co.uk | @DanceDepotUK
Site of The Week Winner May 29th 2017
Service Now
servicenow.com | @ServiceNow_EMEA
Site of The Week Runner Up May 29th 2017
MuleSoft
Site of The Week Winner May 22nd 2017
Skyline Taxis
skylinetaxis.co.uk | @SkylineTaxisNth
Site of The Week Runner Up May 22nd 2017
Coast To Coast American Restaurant Bar
c2crestaurants.com/restaurant/northampton | @CoastToCoast
Site of The Week Winner May 15th 2017
Hipster Sound
hipstersound.com | @HipsterSound
Site of The Week Runner Up May 15th 2017
Twine
Site of The Week Winner May 11th 2017
Maysons
Site of The Week Runner Up May 11th 2017
EA Star Wars Battlefront
ea.com/en-gb/games/starwars/battlefront/battlefront-2 | @EA
Site of The Week Winner May 4th 2017
Soft Surfaces
softsurfaces.co.uk | @Soft_Surfaces
Site of The Week Winner April 24th 2017
Ditto
Site of The Week Runner Up April 24th 2017
Elouise Makes
Site of The Week Winner April 18th 2017
Interflora
interflora.co.uk | @InterfloraUK
Site of The Week Runner Up April 18th 2017
Vue
Site of The Week Winner April 12th 2017
Champneys Health Spa
Site of The Week Winner March 30th 2017
Norma Dorothy
normadorothy.com/ | @NormaAndDorothy
Site of The Week Winner March 21st 2017
Codecademy
Site of The Week Winner March 13th 2017
Canva
Site of The Week Winner March 6th 2017
My Clean
Site of The Week Winner February 27th 2017
One Step Checkout
onestepcheckout.com | @onestepcheckout
Site of The Week Winner February 20th 2017
Skyscanner
Site of The Week Winner February 20th 2017
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Site
new-stadium.tottenhamhotspur.com | @SpursOfficial
Site of The Week Winner February 8th 2017
One Page Love: Caroline and Johannes one page Wedding Invitation
Site of The Week Winner February 1st 2017
Oneskee
A huge congratulations to our winners for your outstanding work on your website design and optimisation – keep it up!
To nominate your site for our Site of the Week Competition, or the website of someone you know, simply email us here, contact us via Facebook or Twitter, or give us a call. We’d love to hear from you!
Additional information
*Links must be added to use the Site of The Week Badge, and the link must be do-follow.
