How did a simple website win best design of the year?

| Web design

How did a simple website win best design of the year?

Gov.uk was named the 2013 best design of the year by the Design Museum, beating 99 shortlisted inventions, cars and buildings to be crowned with this amazing achievement. It is the first website to ever win this award, which shows us just how remarkable the achievement really is.

However you may be thinking how does this basic and simple website win an award like this?

Well just because of that, how basic and simple it is.

Ben Terrett, head of design at the UK's Government Digital Service says “There were thousands of websites, and we folded them into Gov.uk to make just one, Booking a prison stay should be as easy as booking a driver's license test."

The idea behind this website was to make the user experience as simple as possible.

"You shouldn't come to the website and say 'wow, look at the graphic design!'" Terrett says. "You should come to the website to find out what the minimum wage is."

The website only uses one type of font, a solemn colour palette of black and white gradients as well as classic blue links. There is no imagery or logos to distract you from what you are looking for.

Many large websites turn into a labyrinth of independent sites where you have to travel from one site to the next in search of what you are looking for. Gov.uk has managed to bring the web presence of an entire government under one roof.

In reality, there is no real way to judge the “best design”, it would be easy to pick what the judges thought was the prettiest object but instead this award went to the simplest.

You have to remember that websites for Estate Agents aren’t completely about being the prettiest but are there to help the user find what they are looking for quickly and simply. You don’t have to be completely bold and unique to have the favoured website amongst your competition as design is subjective, what one customer may like another might not. However everyone likes a good, friendly user experience.