3 Cool Looking Websites that Make a “Boring” Business More Appealing

In the age of glamorized and innovative tech start-ups, there are still many tech businesses that are not the most exciting. In this article, we will go over 3 cool looking websites that prove how good web design can make a boring business more attractive.

I am going to name a few websites and I want you to tell me what your initial feeling or thought about them is.

• API (application programming interface) website
• Payment processing website
• Developer website

Do you feel excited by the sound of these? Bored? Unsure of how you feel? Same. 🙋

Even though these businesses play a super necessary role in the digital space, they are very technical. To those not in the tech space, explaining the meaning and purpose of these enterprises can seem foreign, very technical, and boring.

Even to those IN the tech space, these businesses are kind of just, meh.

But, that does not mean their website has to be.

Introducing, boring businesses’ 3 best friends when it comes to making them appear attractive online: color, contrast, and typography. Cool looking websites all use visual design principles, discussed in-depth here, to catch the attention of the viewer.

Now, let’s take a look at the three websites that make these boring businesses appear, well, actually kind of fun. You see, a website has the power to transform the way people see your business. With good web design, good impressions are actually in our control.

1. APPLE DEVELOPER

Leave it to Apple to take the most technical, dry topics and bringing it to life with clean visuals and awesome web design. Apple Developer is a website for app developers to get more information on upcoming events, like the World Developer Conference, and introducing the latest version of Xcode, the code platform Apple requires iOS app developers to code their app.

Apple is notorious for relentlessly removing clutter and unnecessary information. Notice the top banner being WWDC20. They are referring to the World Developer Conference this year, and they shortened it to not even say 2020, but instead just 20. They also don’t have any other information about it besides the Bitmojis that implies there will be cool looking, alternative people there who rock stickers on their laptops. 🤘

Next, the banner is for xCode presents it the way Apple presents things. Instead of talking about the update to xCode, they use strategic copywriting to say “Introducing” as if Apple has come up with an entirely new product, which is something to be excited about. In reality, though, it’s just an update from version 11.

Overall, this site is stripped of clutter and all the unnecessary info, which is how a homepage should look like. If you want to learn more about something, you can click to learn more. The Apple Developer website is clean and has a clear user experience as a result.

Minimalism is the process of carefully eliminating what doesn’t add value. – Ed Orozco

Now, typically, developer websites won’t look this good. They use fonts that are the same size and they try to cram a lot of information at once. It almost seems like they don’t want to miss a single thing. An example of this would be Flutter. They did a good thing by including that video, but I am too distracted by the sidebars to watch it (sorry). ✌

2. STRIPE

Stripe is an API, which stands for application programming interface, something we don’t need to go into the details on. API’s are commonly very technical, boring, and hard to explain/understand (except for a small number of people in development).

All you need to know about Stripe is two things:

1. You know when you are scrolling through Instagram and get stopped by an ad made just for you? You think, “Oh my gosh, how did they know? I need this.”
2. Even though it’s just a boring old API, it’s actually not… because of their amazing website.

Move out of the way, other payment processor sites/APIs for online payment transactions. Stripe is here to stay.

Their site does an amazing job adding color, hierarchy, and solid use of typography that creates an experience other payment processors wish they had.

3. GLIDIAN

Next on our list of cool looking websites is one of our own clients, Glidian. Glidian is an online API, where insurance companies and hospitals can connect and communicate. It offers a platform that is HIPAA compliant AND is reliable in terms of connectivity.

Now, don’t get too excited by this description. Their site is able to transform boring –> COOL in just 3 seconds (load speed).

Notice how clean and simple the top banner of their home page is. It avoids clutter, and masters contrast and hierarchy by making the illustration front and center and the largest thing on the page. From this illustration, you can tell it is involving health professionals and a digital tool of some sort to load patient information.

Last Thoughts on Cool-Looking Websites

With the way web design has evolved, websites have the power to take a conventionally boring topic/business and make it way look cooler and even appealing.

Through the modern use of colors, hierarchy, and typography, these 3 websites have what it takes to make a ‘boring’ business much cooler.