5 Examples of Stunning Enterprise Website Design
Enterprise websites are complex projects that should be beautifully designed and intuitively interactive.
Since enterprise websites support large-scale organizations in many important ways, it’s essential for these sites to provide an outstanding user experience.
When looking to advance your own enterprise website, there are plenty of great leaders in the space to get inspiration from.
In this article, we’ll look at five stunning enterprise websites examples.
No matter what product or service you’re offering, there are key takeaways that you can learn and apply to your own website.
What Is an Enterprise Website?
If you’re not completely familiar with what an enterprise website is, it’s important to understand before we get started.
Creating and managing an enterprise website is much different than a site for a small or medium-sized business.
An enterprise website is a site built for a large-scale organization that must support many different functions, such as marketing, sales, human resources, payment processing, and more. It likely has hundreds or thousands of pages and is integrated with numerous different software systems.
Businesses that require an enterprise website usually have a robust internal company structure (several departments, many service offerings, etc.), therefore their website must support all these functions (source).
Enterprise websites can be much different than SMB websites, primarily because they have different needs. Additionally, most enterprises have a larger budget which means a greater emphasis can be placed on design and user experience.
Next, we will talk about what enterprise sites do differently than most SMB websites.
What Enterprise Websites Do Differently
A well-built enterprise website can bring many different benefits to your organization. This includes both seen (design and experience) and unseen (backend and internal tools) elements.
Not only does your website support marketing and sales, but it can also be used as a tool for supporting customers, establishing credibility, attracting new hires, and managing other internal functions.
Developing and managing an enterprise website is different than the typical small business website. With more resources and expertise available, an enterprise website will be more robust than most sites. This is often paired with state-of-the-art design and user experience.
Enterprise sites also have more requirements, guidelines, and approvals that need to be addressed before and after launch, therefore yielding an outstanding result.
Below, we’ll talk about a few ways that enterprise websites stand out compared to most business websites.
Expertly Crafted User Interface and Design
One of the most important aspects when developing and managing an enterprise website is the design, structure, and interactivity of the site.
Most enterprises will have multiple product or service offerings, resources for customers, information to attract employees, marketing material, and much more. All this is paired with software integrations that are managed by numerous users.
With such extensive requirements, a large deal of effort will be placed on the structure and design of the website so visitors can find what they’re looking for in the most efficient and visually-appealing way possible.
When done properly, an enterprise website will be easy-to-use and enjoyable for all visitors, regardless of their browsing intent.
Along with a superb site structure, an enterprise website will utilize the latest trends in web design to make the site impressively beautiful for users. This is especially true for tech companies who need to show they’re on the cutting edge of technology and web design.
Well-Tested User Experience and Functionality
Since enterprise websites are complex and serve many important functions for an organization, testing plays an important role in running a successful site.
Without proper testing, bugs and website errors may not be noticed for a very long time as they could get buried within the numerous pages on the site.
Enterprise sites have detailed testing and approval protocols for making website changes. These procedures will be tailored towards different activities such as releasing a new blog post, launching a new page, changing features of a product, and more.
Developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) with detailed testing procedures for usability and design are crucial for enterprise website success.
If detailed testing is not performed, your enterprise site could slowly build up with miscellaneous issues that will be a mess to fix. Companies should proactively prepare for, identify, and repair these issues before they turn into a larger problem.
Superior Tools and Integrations
One of the biggest advantages of an enterprise website is the ability to support many different functions. Your website can help improve or manage marketing, sales, communication, operations, and other aspects of the organization.
Website systems and third-party software integrations will help you achieve these requirements.
There are endless possibilities for what tools and functionality your enterprise website will include, but common examples are:
- A powerful content management system
- Internal communication system
- Project management tools
- Human resources platform
- Customer relationship management (CRM) integration
- Website analytics dashboard
These are just a few examples, but the possibilities are endless. The features of your enterprise site should include everything you need to support your organization online.
Accessibility for All Users
Website accessibility is important for all websites, but enterprise websites typically place a greater importance on it than small and medium-sized businesses.
Web accessibility is the process of developing websites that are easy for people with disabilities to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with.
As an enterprise, inclusivity is important to you. Your customers, employees, investors, and other individuals rely on your website for information and tools. If your website is not able to accommodate the needs of all individuals, it could seriously impact your organization.
That’s why enterprises place such a large importance on making their website accessible for all users.
Some important aspects of creating an accessible enterprise website include:
- Establishing a clear navigational structure
- Using proper HTML elements for headings and other content
- Setting alternative text for images
- Utilizing appropriate color contrast
- Testing keyboard-only usability
- Implement useful error messages
Learn more about web accessibility here.
Five Examples of Great Enterprise Websites
Now that you understand the components that make enterprise websites different than other business websites, we’re going to discuss five impressive examples of enterprise websites.
We selected these sites based on user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) and will explain why we think each of these is a great enterprise website.
1. Apple
We’re starting this list with an industry giant to show the value of sleek design and easily accessible information.
Not only does Apple’s website look stunning, but it also functions incredibly well so anyone can use it.
The design is simple but impressive, and it does a great job highlighting their latest product. High contrast text and background combinations also make for easy reading, especially for those with disabilities.
Their navigation menu is comprehensive but remains simple enough for users to quickly find what they’re looking for. While similar companies may have extensive drop-downs and subsections in their main menu, Apple keeps it much simpler than that.
You don’t have to be a billion-dollar company to implement Apple’s design techniques into your own website.
“Simplicity = sophistication.”
2. Adobe
Adobe is a large enterprise that offers a wide range of products to many different types of audiences.
Some of their products include graphic design software for individuals, e-signature software for enterprises, ecommerce analytics, and more.
Since they offer quite a large array of products, creating a website to reflect this is a huge challenge.
A visitor on Adobe’s website must be able to quickly find the product or resource they are looking for, whether they are a hobbyist, company executive, or small business owner.
Their main navigation menu is concisely split into four primary categories, each containing a robust array of subsections to help the user find exactly what they’re looking for.
This simple design is colorful, but not distracting. It does a great job at displaying information in a clear and concise manner.
Not only does their site showcase their products, it also provides easily-accessible links for information about Adobe careers, corporate responsibility, investor relations, events, and much more.
3. MasterClass
MasterClass is an online education platform with classes taught by the most prominent experts in various fields.
Immediately upon visiting their homepage, you are met with a sleek carousel-style image gallery featuring well-known celebrities and engaging visuals. The black background does a great job at providing contrast for the images, which gives a stunning appearance.
They also display their primary call-to-action above the fold, including full details of their pricing.
If you’re not immediately interested in joining their program, they provide helpful categories for you to explore directly in the main navigation menu. When you’re ready to sign up, a link to their pricing plans is easily accessible in the navigation menu as well.
MasterClass does a great job at explaining their offering through imagery. They also take advantage of a simple navigational structure to make it easy for visitors to learn more and purchase their product.
4. Oracle
Oracle is a great example of how a website can serve many different functions in an easy-to-use manner.
Although Oracle’s design is not necessarily stunning, it is clean and visually appealing. It is simple, well-contrasted, and still contains some mild colors to keep visitors interested.
The most impressive aspects about Oracle’s website is it’s ability to efficiently serve a wide variety of visitors.
Looking at their navigation menu, you’ll see many different categories that are each designed for a different user intent.
Let’s break Oracle’s website structure down into pieces:
- Products & Industries – Supports their sales and marketing functions
- Resources & Customers – Supports their existing customer base with information, product support, and more
- Partners – Supports their customer and partner relationships that share Oracle technology
- Developers – Contains resources and events for software developers
- Events – Showcases all upcoming Oracle events, divided into subcategories
- Company – Provides extensive company information for investors, the public, employees, and more
Although Oracle receives many different types of visitors to their site, their clear navigational structure allows visitors to quickly find a section of the Oracle website that is relevant to them.
5. Madewell
Madewell’s website operates primarily as an ecommerce store that combines beautiful imagery and exclusive perks to engage the customer, along with easy navigation, dynamic recommendations, and a trendy design.
Immediately when landing on the home page, you are met with an engaging hero image showcasing their latest products. You instantly get a sense for the type of style that Madewell offers just by looking above the fold. They also use this section to promote their latest offers or in-season style trends. The site uses similar colors in the images to create cohesiveness of the page.
Interestingly, they use a unique call-to-action that encourages the user to “see the story” behind these styles, rather than simply leading them straight to a product page. This builds a deeper connection between visitors and their brand before attempting to make a sale.
In terms of navigation, they keep it fairly standard for an ecommerce site. However, they use a clever toggle between men’s and women’s styles to minimize the number of pages in the navigation menu to keep the site simple and easy to use.
Taking Your Website to the Next Level
Understanding these corporate website examples can spark inspiration so you can build a vision for your own company’s website. We’re confident that you can implement bits and pieces from each of these examples to make your website more effective and visually appealing for your visitors.
Managing your enterprise website effectively helps you convey your company’s vision, keep your site running smoothly, and achieve your company’s goals.
Since tackling an enterprise can be difficult when relying on your company’s resources alone, it’s common for the process to be handled by a third-party website management provider. This gives companies access to professional expertise at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house.
Jonathan is a WordPress expert with 10+ years of experience building and managing websites. He owns WPCharger, a service business that specializes in managing WordPress websites for small and midsize businesses.