5 UI Design Examples To Inspire Your Next Website Build

It’s a simple fact: Good user interface designs, which will vary slightly depending on a company’s industry and goals, create impactful website experiences. But in this digital day and age, just being “good” doesn’t get you very far. You need to have exemplary UI design, which, sometimes, can take a long time to get right. Starting with some inspiration can be a quick way to ensure you’re heading in the right direction. 

UI design should be clean and clear while also enhancing the experience of users. From an aesthetic boost brought on by color and graphics to full-blown experience enhancers like never-ending content streams and easy-to-navigate menus, exceptional user interface design examples can kickstart your creative juices.

Here are five UI design examples that wowed users in recent years to help inspire your website’s functionality and X-factor. Let’s take a look at five of those pillars of great UI design, starting with the social media platform that mastered the power of never-ending content.

1. Pinterest and the Never-Ending Content Stream

Pinterest is a social media platform that specializes in connecting users to images and content across the internet. The waterfall design to its content stream is a very intuitive, scrollable user interface design element. 

Pinterest allows you to search a topic such as “quick meals for four” and immediately find dozens of photos that link to blogs, recipes, and more. As users continue to scroll, looking for that perfect recipe, there is no real end or bottom to the content. It’s a never-ending stream of things to explore. This intuitive UI example could be inspiring for a way of organizing large content libraries.

2. Instagram and the Simplicity of Icons

Another popular social media platform, Instagram, has changed its user interface elements a lot as it has evolved. As the platform added features like a Shop feature and integration with Messenger, the user interface elements could have gotten really crowded. Instead, Instagram decided to utilize good UI design and take advantage of adding simple icons to keep the home screen minimal and user-friendly.

Easy to understand icons for things like Explore page and Reels keep the growing platform simple and smooth to use. It’s a masterclass in how graphics, however minimal, can do a lot to help users find their way around your website or app. 

3. Spotify and the Power of Color Palettes 

As the streaming age of music continues to expand, Spotify is still proving its a leader in making music more than just a hobby or interest. The platform truly understands how social music can be, and that means sharing your favorite songs with friends and exploring new sounds. Finding your way around a huge library of music is a lot more fun with a splash of color. It’s a strategic UX approach that works every time. 

Everything from genres to playlists and charts feature various colors across a dynamic palette. There are so many different colors coming at you that without even knowing it you can find songs to fit your mood based on the colors in front of you. It’s a cerebral way to connect color to our favorite artists.

4. Frank and Oak and the Beauty of the Bold

Frank and Oak, a well-known fashion brand for men, features UI interface elements that are a little more understated, but they welcome the user nonetheless. With bold photography and clean, crisp menus to select sizing and order items, the seamless, minimalist experience is soothing for a searching shopper.

From bold, clear menus and engaging photographs to match each clothing item, there’s a really great aesthetic to Frank and Oak that makes it feel classy and concise while still showing you clothing that inspires the need to add the items to the shopping cart.

5. Flickr and the Influence of Imagery 

Finally, Flickr is far from a new website. Still, it continues to keep things fresh and fun with a really great approach to using its content imagery library to its advantage. 

By highlighting its most high-res entries on its homepage and simply offering a search bar for users to explore various topics, places, and interests, Flickr feels as dynamic and diverse as its user base. User testing these sorts of features shows that images really make a difference for visitors to the website. Plus, it looks so good, you want to keep working your way through the site every chance you get. 

UI Design Takes Time, but Influence Speeds Up Inspiration

There are a lot of great UI examples that can help set the course for your own design. Of course, you might have websites that really resonate with you as well. Finding the time to expand on what influences you want to adapt for your website can help you find a blend of ideas that inspire you to create a dynamic UI design. Keeping in mind the goals of providing the ultimate user experience, UI design research can pay off big time come development.