30 Examples of Clean and Minimal Website Navigation
Navigation is one of the most important aspects of a web design, but this doesn’t mean it needs to be overly complicated or over designed. In fact, when it comes to navigating a website, simplicity is a good thing.
Some navigations make use of design elements like 3D bars, buttons, and tabs to appear clickable, which works great for certain web designs. However, clickability can be achieved with a focus on typography, placement, and maybe some subtle line work. For this article, we’ve rounded up 30 clean and minimal website navigations that will inspire you and prove that navigations don’t always have to look like 3D buttons to be effective.
Kilian Muster
bressane
Haik Avanian
Design Instruct
Color Cubic
Big Cartel
Kyle Fiedler
Miguel Buckenmeyer & Co.
Creative Spark
Infintium
Jeroen Homan
Frank Chimero
Mercy
Information Highwayman
We Are VI
Kari Jobe
One Login
Momentify
OVO
Brian Hoff
Shout
North Kingdom
MCA Denver
Jacob Lee
Giant Ant Media
AdFlavor
Waterworks
Sugar Rush Creative
Websiteburo
Corking Design
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54 comments
Nathan
March 12, 2010Umm… honestly, I have to admit that none of the above looks nice. I’ve seen a lot of minimal layouts and even more minimal navigation and I can point many that looks better. Perhaps these newest trends aren’t very minimal after all
Alex
October 18, 2011“Umm… honestly, I have to admit”, Nathan your mistake here is to admit something that to others can see as minimal websites. That`s the usual mistake we all do from time to time, “admitting” is very different from an opinion. Unless one of the websites above is yours, to admit something like this implies that you had to do something on the creation of that specific “thing”.
Alex.
Kilian Muster
March 12, 2010Wow, yet another web design blog mentioning my redesigned website… It appears I’ve done something right at last. Thanks a lot for the link!
Kilian
Daniel Long
March 12, 2010I think there are some great examples of minimal and clean website navigation above. I agree with Nathan in saying that the examples don’t look fantastic as screenshots, but when you navigate to the actual website, this is when the design really shines through.
The navigation complements the design of the whole site really well which makes me want to carry on looking through the site.
Some of my favourites – Miguel Buckenmeyer & Co. Brian Hoff and Sugar Rush Creative.
Francesco Ciabatta
March 12, 2010Beautiful. I love minimal website. Thanks for the list!
lono
March 12, 2010Have to say i disagree with nathan (sorry)
I love the collection… take a look at my website as we use ultra minimal site navigation.
James – Lono Creative.
F
March 12, 2010Erhm, what’s minimalistic about 60% of the examples? They’re “normal” and not minimalistic at all.
Dave | SEO Nottingham
March 12, 2010I’m absolutly loving “Sugar Rush Creative”, I’ve always been a massive fan of this navigation.
Cueburst
March 12, 2010A nice list, although in my opinion, a few don’t deserve to be up there.
Loving the majority though!
Justin Carroll
March 12, 2010I’m a minimalist at heart. Thanks for the fodder.
Amberly | Web Designer
March 12, 2010These are awesome. I love the Jacob Lee menu.
Jen
March 12, 2010What I don’t like about these types of posts – while the above are potentially inspiring, these types of posts don’t break down the why’s of why a minimal navigation is successful. Why should someone mimic this style in their own work? Why should a client strive for this type of clear minimalism?
chicago web design
March 12, 2010Minimalism is the direction were heading in. This is great inspiration for our designers. Thanks bunches!
Tom Dahm
March 12, 2010AWESOME. I LOVE minimalism. I currently reworking my site to better attain my love for minimalism and typography. Thanks for the great inspiration.
Elf M. Sternberg
March 12, 2010Only two of the sites listed above are retail or business-to-business outside of the web design world; only two sell something other than the site’s owner or his design services. That’s not a heartening observation.
I’m working with a client right now and we’re struggling with an “evolutionary, not revolutionary” reboot of her website. In the AIDA paradigm, she has plenty of attention from her niche. The biggest challenge of all is still what every designer faces: after “Attention,” how do we go to “Interest, Desire, and Action?” She has a broad category scheme for thousands of products, and designing the home page and interior wayfinding to support visitor clarity with respect to the “Why am I here?” and “What should I do (other than leave)?” questions has occupied much of my time recently.
The examples here are all boutique and, quite frankly, the Faberge’ eggs of navigation. Pretty, but do they really help visitors find what they want?
Web Design Soul
March 12, 2010These websites are great. I love Infintium’s Navigation Menu.
Web Design by 314media.com St. Louis
March 12, 2010good resources and excellent examples. .. I’m a big fan of minimlaistic design so these are great! Shout’s my personal fav…
rob
January 3, 2011Great list. Some fantastic navigation options on here.
Lava360
March 12, 2010one of the most important part of a website and you find some great navigation’s here. very inspiring and useful
Peter V Cook
March 12, 2010Another great example: http://www.storypixel.com
Darlinton
March 15, 2010No, is not a good example, looks bad..
Drew
March 29, 2010I agree with Darlinton.
It’s not a nice site, but then it’s always really easy to be critical of others. Who am I to be critical
A
Brian Walsh
March 12, 2010I basically modelled my website to be as minimal as possible. http://www.quickpixfix.com I would love to know what you think. Nav is nice and minimal.
fgaeg
March 12, 2010Wow this one is great list resorces!
But this post should break down “why minimal navigation is successful”. and maybe describing the information can make this post really usefull for everyone and the community. thx for share!
Peach
March 12, 2010Awesome list. Minimalistic design is really the trend this year.
Web Development Outsourcing Company
March 13, 2010Nice collection..
Sunny G
March 13, 2010Nice… great inspirational stuff
Found few more…
http://www.broadbandmix.co.uk
http://ilovetypography.com
http://astheria.com
http://www.rikcatindustries.com
Web design chennai
March 13, 2010Nice article..Iam a minimalist…i like the color cubic and sugar rush creative.
Tanya
March 14, 2010Very Nice Collection. I like most of them
Jordan Walker
March 15, 2010Very clean and easy for users to navigate.
Alex Aguilar
March 16, 2010Seems that nowadays navigation menu with link description under the link is pretty popular
thegraphiks
March 16, 2010Great information!
Muchas gracias por estos ejemplos, siempre sirven.
void
March 16, 2010Total nav failers. Too simple.
Nothing inspirational!
Xander
March 18, 2010Very nice collection of minimal navigation samples. Check out our site for our version of minimal navigation menu.
Maksim Shaihalov
March 19, 2010nice collection! thx!
Miles
March 19, 2010Some nice examples, but what worries me is that several of these sites’ navigation would be unreadable by many people with vision problems. So many designers, even on ‘public’ rather than ‘personal’ sites, seem to know – or care – nothing about the most basic accessibility considerations. The designer/developer needs to inform and educate clients about these considerations or they’re not doing their job and the client gets a compromised product.
chicago web design
April 9, 2010Yes, I found these easy to use too. Nice post. Thanks for sharing.
bodybuilding clothing
April 9, 2010great examples!
Curtis Shae
April 28, 2010Amazing stuff as usual…
Felicia D. Henegar
May 1, 2010Do you mind if I use the information I got reading from this website on the project that I’m working? I will properly cite you.
Vincent Roman
June 1, 2010Some of these NAV styles are awesome, but some of them are AWFUL.
The worst offenders are Websiteburo and Corking Designs. The text is practically invisible. I am not blind and the design is barely accessible.
Nice little collection, thanks for yet another list
yehya hafez
July 8, 2010just one word “outstanding”
Aker
July 29, 2010Great list but you could add some more like mrkwvr or minimalissimo. Anyway thanks for sharing that great list !
Marty Rogers
July 31, 2010Fabulous, absolutely stunning.
Nothing beats simplicity when it comes to websites, users adore it. That’s what I have found anyway. I really like the Big Cartel nav, it’s very smooth indeed.
Thanks for the ideas!
egyptian web designer
July 31, 2010Just one word “OUTSTANDING”
my favorite is “Color Cubic”
Thanks from EGYPTTTT
Matthew Menard
September 13, 2010Great list, some very nice examples of clean and simple navigation, a few were almost too simple
Web design portfolio
October 12, 2010great collection
Kyle Hildebrant
March 4, 2011Thanks for featuring OVO in this list. W’re happy to be included.
Zia
April 26, 2011simple, nice & clean
Krista
May 31, 2011Really great examples. Love the minimalist look.
Manu
August 19, 2011For this amazing collection i suggest niuenso.com
Karl
May 9, 2012Hy guys,
I want to thank for the nice list of menu,and I just wanted to share a cool free minimal menu design – the files are PSD and you could use them to create really cool menus. http://www.creattor.com/web-elements/minimal-menu-3992
I used the files to design a couple of websites, but I think they’re useful for everyone.
Richard Tomkins
June 5, 2012I loved them all.
Christopher Becker
June 28, 2012an AWESOME collection, thanks for sharing….
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