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5 Well-Thought-out Database Website Designs

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Compact landing pages, one-screen personal portfolios, and capsule mobile app websites overpopulate the Web aggressively popularizing minimal and environmentally-friendly approaches; however, it is still a place for some massive projects like online databases that may easily “eat” a capacity of the enterprise-level server.

Data-obsessed platforms are not something extraordinary. For example, Summarystory, with its enormous collection of free book summaries, has been with us for ages. It is a mecca for students around the World. Wikipedia is another good case in point. There are also online magazines, education platforms, and countless digital stores that deal with a bulk of information on a daily basis.

We all know that the more pages you have, the harder it is to control the situation and provide a proper quality level; nevertheless, these giants are managed to offer the visitors an excellent user experience and beautiful design. Let’s consider five well-thought-out database website designs that show in practice how to handle thousands of pages gracefully and smoothly.

 

5 Well-thought-out Database Website Designs

We are going to start with two examples that we have already mentioned.

Summarystory

Summarystory is the biggest database of book reviews. It has a ton of educational material that comes in handy when you need to write essays, articles, research papers, dissertations, and even coursework. It is also regularly updated to meet the current needs of postgraduates. In a word, it is a lifesaver for students all around the World.

However, covering such a massive amount of information and providing a great user experience requires extra effort and testing limits of modern technologies. Therefore, the website design is planned to the last detail.

The homepage is neat, clean, and straight-to-the-point. It welcomes visitors with a functional yet eye-pleasing hero area that includes a search for quickly locating required information. There is also streamlined navigation with only crucial menu items and several blocks with links to other helpful resources.

The color palette is beautiful, whereas typography is fancy. The website is also inclusive, which means even people with disabilities can derive benefits from it.

As for inner pages, they can also boast of the same well-thought-out design.

SummaryStory is one good website design.

summarystory

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has revolutionized our way of getting and sharing information on the Web. It is an online database with a billion pages. All you need to do to find the required data is to use a search in the upper right corner. How cool is that?

Although when it comes to website design, Wikipedia can’t boast of modern features and extravagant solutions that produce a wow factor; however, the deal is it does not need this. Its purpose is to provide a comfortable environment for all the information-hunters.

The thing to marvel at Wikipedia is organizational harmony and perfect information hierarchy. Everything is structured and well-balanced. It is just a pleasure to surf through it.

wiki

Amazon

Amazon is the biggest online retailer on the Web. It functions since 2004 and seals thousands of deals each day. Although it falls into the category of “e-commerce,” still in its core, it is a vast database with products, prices, shipping information, reviews, and much more.

Amazon teaches us one good lesson: the design should be simple, even though it has to be content-heavy. On top of that, navigation should stay consistent from year to year so that people can use well-established conventions to navigate through and quickly locate information. The homepage design may undergo changes to meet the current trends and look up-to-date, but crucial elements should be habitual and trivial.

Note, each page in Amazon is packed with data: there are images, price information, product description, seller info, promotions; nevertheless, information hierarchy and rigid structure successfully create order out of chaos and provide visitors with a comfortable environment.

amazon

IMDB

While we all fancy Rotten Tomatoes for the saucy reviews and honest opinions, however when it comes to finding the movie description, familiarizing yourself with the cast, or reading plot summaries, there is no better place than IMDB.

IMDB (also known as Internet Movie Database) is the biggest database where you can find information related to not only movies but also television programs, streaming content online, and even video games. It efficiently deals not only with a mass of knowledge but also with impressive 83 million registered users.

As for design, IMDB looks modern without a doubt. Even though it does not sparkle with trendy features like an interactive background, it still looks stylish, elegant, and chic.

Note, the website uses dark coloring for the homepage that reduces eye strain and provides optimal contrast. It also naturally balances all the bright images. The inner pages have a traditional light mode, that works great for readability.

Simple yet clever.

imdb

Craigslist

Last but certainly not least, Craigslist can be safely called a father of massive online databases. Although it is stated that it is a list, however, at its heart, it is a traditional database that contains a wealth of information collected through decades.

Dated 1995 and single-handedly created by Craig Newmark, a pioneer of the Web, it has become the first-ever classified advertisements website (also known as internet commune) covering such areas as jobs, housing, items wanted, and services, gigs, résumés.

When it comes to design, Craigslist is banal, insipid, and just primitive. However, it is precisely what the doctor ordered. It was a great solution then, and it is an excellent solution now since to handle information overload efficiently, the interface should be as simple as possible.

It is easy to navigate. It does not distract your attention from your prime mission with excessive ads or unreasonable decorations. Everything is clean, neat, and smart. You get what you need right here right now.

craigslist

Conclusion

Although the general tendency displays everyone’s intention to create compact, fully optimized, and lightweight solutions, there is still room for some serious projects that are heavy as a dinosaur. After all, what are we going to do without Wikipedia and other helpful content-heavy resources? They are the base of the Web.

All the listed above examples cope with their task pretty effectively. They have beautiful designs, great usability where everything is easily accessible, and an enjoyable user experience. And with all that, they are a mine of information.

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