March 28, 2024

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

website navigation

bressane

website navigation

Haik Avanian

website navigation

Design Instruct

website navigation

Color Cubic

website navigation

Big Cartel

website navigation

Kyle Fiedler

website navigation

Miguel Buckenmeyer & Co.

website navigation

Creative Spark

website navigation

Infintium

website navigation

Jeroen Homan

website navigation

Frank Chimero

website navigation

Mercy

website navigation

Information Highwayman

website navigation

We Are VI

website navigation

Kari Jobe

website navigation

One Login

website navigation

Momentify

website navigation

OVO

website navigation

Brian Hoff

website navigation

Shout

website navigation

North Kingdom

website navigation

MCA Denver

website navigation

Jacob Lee

website navigation

Giant Ant Media

website navigation

AdFlavor

website navigation

Waterworks

website navigation

Sugar Rush Creative

website navigation

Websiteburo

website navigation

Corking Design

website navigation

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Henry Jones is a web developer, designer, and entrepreneur with over 14 years of experience. He is the founder of WDL and ThemeTrust.

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55 Comments

  1. Nathan Reply

    Umm… 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 🙂

    1. Alex Reply

      “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.

  2. Daniel Long Reply

    I 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.

  3. lono Reply

    Have 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.

  4. Jen Reply

    What 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?

  5. Tom Dahm Reply

    AWESOME. I LOVE minimalism. I currently reworking my site to better attain my love for minimalism and typography. Thanks for the great inspiration.

  6. Elf M. Sternberg Reply

    Only 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?

    1. Drew Reply

      I 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

  7. fgaeg Reply

    Wow 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!

  8. Miles Reply

    Some 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.

  9. Vincent Roman Reply

    Some 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 🙂

  10. Marty Rogers Reply

    Fabulous, 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!

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