Start here
Five lists, and what is on them.
What is current in web design, counted rather than remembered. Every row shows a winner that carries it.
The short version
- 1Make it move.
More than half of all winning sites have animation. A page that stays still is now the exception.
- 2Lay it out like a magazine.
The commonest look among winners is editorial: big pictures, confident type and plenty of space.
- 3Pick one strong color.
Blue, red and orange lead, usually as a single accent on a white or black background.
- 4Design the bottom of the page.
The footer, the strip at the very bottom, is the fastest-rising thing among new winners.
- 5Tell it in order.
Storytelling, taking the visitor through a sequence step by step, is climbing.
The detail
Top 5 — Looks
What the winners look like
Every winner’s look, described in its own words, folded into the families those words keep landing in.
-
Fashion editorial
Laid out like a magazine — big pictures, confident type, lots of air.
Leaned on hardest in Fashion, Photo & Video and Photography.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. A web and print experience structured in the style of a 1969 lifestyle magazine. Fans were able to dig deeper into Taratino's world. The look: 1960s magazine cover, full-bleed portrait behind heavy condensed sans masthead, flat orange stock with paper creases and a cover price bubble.
20%about 1 in 5 winners falling21% → 15%
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
-
Cinematic realism
Shot and graded like film, and composed like a frame from one.
Leaned on hardest in Property, Sport and Technology.
The New Mobile Workforce. Race Day requires optimal performance. Take a look at how the Citrix team uses data to analyze, model, & design the car. The look: cinematic realism, a full-bleed motion-blurred hero photograph with thin all-caps overlay type and a scroll prompt reads like a title card from a TV commercial.
17%about 1 in 6 winners holding17% → 18%
The New Mobile Workforce
-
Swiss modernist
A strict grid, one sans-serif, and nothing that is not needed.
Leaned on hardest in Institutions, Architecture and Photography.
Design Canada. Through the lens of graphic design, Design Canada follows the transformation of a nation from a colonial outpost to a vibrant and multicultural society. The look: Swiss modernist, helvetica in tight left-aligned blocks on a strict column grid, with a single flat geometric red mark on black.
15%about 1 in 7 winnerstoo few yet to call
Design Canada
-
3D and CGI
Objects built rather than photographed, lit and turned in real space.
Leaned on hardest in Apps, Technology and Fashion.
Nike Reactor. The epic Nike Reactor let you experience how the new Nike React feel like. Get the world going and walk on feathers while bouncing on bubbles. The look: 3D CGI product spectacle, glossy rendered blobs and shoes floating in a saturated blue void behind chunky perspective-warped display type.
12%about 1 in 8 winners rising12% → 16%
Nike Reactor
-
Period revival
Borrowed wholesale from another decade, down to the type.
Leaned on hardest in Food & Drink, Events and Art.
Sleep Well Creative. Sleep Well Creatives is an interactive web experience designed to help people and improve the quality of their sleep through science-based insights, friendly design, and visuals.
7%about 1 in 14 winnerstoo few yet to call
Sleep Well Creative
Counted over the 410 winners the vision pass has read. Four families sit below the cut, and 18% match none of them.
Top 5 — Colour
The colours actually being used
Sampled from the winners themselves rather than named from memory — which colours turn up in a palette, and how often.
-
Blue
The safe loud colour — it reads as trustworthy and nobody has to be talked into it.
Leaned on hardest in Apps, Events and Art.
Kode Sports Club. KODE is a multi-disciplinary sports club opening in Q2 2022 in New Cairo. KODE has an holistic program for every aspect of an athlete’s development. The look: 3D isometric toy-world illustration, a candy-coloured low-poly miniature landscape rendered in axonometric view with rounded plastic-toy trees and figurines.
19%about 1 in 5 winners rising18% → 22%
Kode Sports Club
-
Red
Used as a single accent far more often than as a ground.
Leaned on hardest in Food & Drink, Sport and Events.
CANALS. CANALS is a personal passion project, celebrating the history and creation of the iconic Amsterdam canals through an editorial style, visual design piece. The look: Dutch avant-garde poster, huge red geometric display lettering and a flat red circle laid over a classical Dutch painting, with rotated sidebar micro-type.
18%about 1 in 6 winners holding19% → 17%
CANALS
-
Orange
The warm end of the same job, and the one that has grown fastest.
Leaned on hardest in Photography, Culture and Institutions.
Couro Azul. Couro Azul is a strong player in the Automotive market. It also has a solid presence in the Railway and Aircraft markets. The look: luxury editorial minimalism, split layout with off-white negative space, letterspaced small caps and a large rotated didone serif over moody photography.
16%about 1 in 6 winners falling17% → 14%
Couro Azul
-
Green
Almost always literal — growth, produce, the outdoors.
Leaned on hardest in Hospitality, Culture and Property.
Lando Norris. A high-performance platform for F1 driver Lando Norris, capturing his energy and racing passion through dynamic interactions, bold visuals, and a digital experience as engaging as he is.
10%about 1 in 10 winners rising10% → 12%
Lando Norris
-
Yellow
Rarely more than a flash of it, because it will not hold text.
Leaned on hardest in Hospitality, Food & Drink and Shops.
I-remember. Metaphor of the effects of Alzheimer's disease on the brain, the site will disappear if it is not given memories. We used custom GLSL shaders for the particles and custom Post-Processing GLSL shaders for the effects.
9%about 1 in 11 winnerstoo few yet to call
I-remember
Across 396 sampled palettes. Grounds are counted apart, since a ground is not a colour choice in the same sense: 46% carry a near-white and 35% a near-black. A palette holding two families is counted in both.
Top 5 — Motion
What moves, and how much
The most settled answer on this site: more than half of everything that wins is animated.
-
Animation
things move
Leaned on hardest in Events and Art.
Into the Storm. Into the Storm is an interactive documentary that charts a real pararescue mission through sweeping CGI and an immersive soundscape. Join the rescue as if you were there. The look: cinematic movie poster, double-exposure face-and-mountain composite behind a wide condensed all-caps title with billing-block tagline.
53%more than half of winners holding53% → 51%
Into the Storm
-
Transitions
smooth changes from one screen to the next
Leaned on hardest in Film & TV and Apps.
Welcome to Hogwarts. To celebrate the first day of term at Hogwarts, Pottermore launched a fully interactive WebGL experience which gave users the chance to explore a 3D version of the school.
21%about 1 in 5 winners falling22% → 19%
Welcome to Hogwarts
-
Microinteractions
small reactions — a button answers when you touch it
Leaned on hardest in Publishing, Events and Hospitality.
20 Years of Xbox Museum. To celebrate Xbox's 20th anniversary, we created a microverse featuring six 3D environments. Explore together with avatars and generate a personalized museum using account data. The look: cinematic 3D product render, photoreal CG diorama of consoles on a dark plinth with neon rim-lighting and floating glossy icons.
20%about 1 in 5 winners holding20% → 19%
20 Years of Xbox Museum
-
Gestures / Interaction
you drag, throw or swipe it rather than click it
Leaned on hardest in Apps, Shops and Technology.
The Renaissance Edition. The Renaissance Edition showcases 150+ updates to Shopify, set in a mashup of generative paintings with elements of modern commerce. The look: neoclassical painting pastiche, a staged Creation-of-Adam tableau in painterly chiaroscuro, overlaid with grid lines, roman numerals and neon pink props.
10%about 1 in 10 winnerstoo few yet to call
The Renaissance Edition
-
Sound-Audio
the page makes sound
Leaned on hardest in Events, Art and Sport.
Santioni Spirits. "The Notturno Experience" invites visitors into the illustrated universe of Santioni Spirits. An immersive, comic book-inspired journey serving as the brand's introduction to the world.
9%about 1 in 11 winners holding9% → 8%
Santioni Spirits
Share of all 714 winners carrying the award body’s own tag. A site usually carries several.
Top 5 — Navigation
How people are got around
The patterns winners use to move a reader through a site, ranked by how many of them use it.
-
Parallax
a background sliding slower than the text, to fake depth
Leaned on hardest in Property.
2°C EARTH. A visual guide exploring the ramifications of our increasingly warmer planet through five locations around the world whose natural and cultural heritage is threatened by climate change.
11%about 1 in 9 winners falling11% → 9%
2°C EARTH
-
Unusual Navigation
menus you have to work out
Leaned on hardest in Art, Shops and Fashion.
Gleec Chat. Explore Gleec Chat's experience to promote the application and discover all its secured functionalities. The look: sci-fi HUD tech, dark starfield gradient, thin-line wireframe device, particle-dot portrait, condensed caps and red accents read as futuristic movie interface.
10%about 1 in 10 winnerstoo few yet to call
Gleec Chat
-
Fullscreen
images running right to the edges, no border
Leaned on hardest in Film & TV, Sport and Fashion.
Air Jordan 2012. The Air Jordan 2012 campaign flies consumers into the world of basketball’s first fully customizable shoe in an immersive digital experience built around a next-level, parallax scrolling HTML5 website.
9%about 1 in 11 winners holding9% → 10%
Air Jordan 2012
-
Gallery
a grid of thumbnails to browse
Leaned on hardest in Photography, Photo & Video and Architecture.
In My World. In My World is a collaboration with photographer Robin Hammond. The website aims to raise awareness about the impact war, poverty and conflict can have on mental health issues. The look: photojournalistic editorial, full-bleed black-and-white reportage portraits behind centred serif display type on a dark ground.
8%about 1 in 13 winnerstoo few yet to call
In My World
-
Footer Design
the strip at the very bottom, actually designed
Leaned on hardest in Photography, Campaigns and Events.
Bennett & Clive. Bennett & Clive is a global creative services and production company helping brands and agencies tell their stories to the world. The look: fashion editorial minimalism, full-bleed cinematic portrait overlaid with oversized tightly-set Helvetica-style capitals bleeding off the edge.
7%about 1 in 14 winners rising6% → 12%
Bennett & Clive
Share of all 714 winners. Ordinary scrolling is left out — at 22% it would take the top row, and it is not a way of getting anywhere.
Top 5 — Rising
What is climbing fastest
Not the biggest — the fastest. How much more common each one is among the newest winners than among everything before them.
-
Footer Design
the strip at the very bottom, actually designed
Leaned on hardest in Photography, Campaigns and Events.
Heron AI. Heron AI is an agent that works inside your design tools. It watches your model as you design, suggests fixes, and makes the edits itself once you approve. Built by architects. Its headline: “An AI agent that works inside your design tools.”
2.08×about 1 in 8 of the newest winners rising6% → 12%
Heron AI
-
Storytelling
the page walks you through something, in order
Leaned on hardest in Art, Technology and Campaigns.
CHILE20. We worked with adidas Originals to create and showcase realistic 3D products for the new CHILE20 collection. The look: cinematic 3D product render, floating garments lit by a red neon column in a dark studio void, with a boxed condensed-caps title like a movie poster.
1.57×about 1 in 3 of the newest winners rising22% → 33%
CHILE20
-
Clean
a lot of empty space left alone
Leaned on hardest in Photography, Publishing and Institutions.
Superlist. Superlist is building the productivity tool of the future; for teams and individuals alike. The look: 3D product-render minimalism, a floating cluster of matte-black objects rendered in 3D against a flat red field, overlaid with oversized grotesque type.
1.28×about 1 in 4 of the newest winners rising22% → 26%
Superlist
-
Data Visualization
charts and diagrams
Leaned on hardest in Technology.
Navigate. Navigate is the first Web3 data platform to gamify and decentralize data collection. Its mission is to build a community-based platform that lets users earn from the data they generate. The look: bold flat pictogram design, chunky grotesk headline with primary-colour geometric badges holding simplified black glyphs.
1.23×about 1 in 20 of the newest winners rising4% → 5%
Navigate
-
Experimental
does something you have not seen before
Leaned on hardest in Sport, Fashion and Culture.
Foosball World Cup 18. The 2018 Foosball World Cup is an interactive game, created to celebrate the FIFA World Cup and all the foosball lovers. The look: low-poly 3D render, faceted untextured figures lit by neon rim glow in a dark glossy 3D scene, rendered like a game engine cutscene.
1.19×about 1 in 6 of the newest winners rising15% → 17%
Foosball World Cup 18
The newest 120 winners against the 594 before them. A multiplier, so a small pattern that doubles outranks a large one that creeps.