Daily Mail website wins top design effectiveness award

The Daily Mail’s website, designed by Brand42, has won the Grand Prix Award at this year’s Design Business Association Design Effectiveness Awards.

The Daily Mail website
The Daily Mail website

Brand42 redesigned the Daily Mail’s MailOnline website in 2008, introducing a three-column grid, colour-based branding system and cleaner type and navigation.

Since the redesign, the website’s annual revenue has grown by 455 per cent, from £4.5 million in 2008 to £25 million in 2012.

Mailonline is now the world’s biggest newspaper website, attracting 84.9 million unique monthly browsers, up from 18.7 million in 2008.

A total of 16 gold awards were handed out. Dew Gibbons bagged two, with others going to Blue Marlin, Brand42, BrandOpus, Creative Media, Front Page, Good, JKR, Kinneir Dufort, M&S inhouse store design team with KIWI&POM, Path, Positive, Springetts, Studio 176 and WPA Pinfold.

In addition, 24 silver and 21 bronze awards were also given out.

The International Export Award, for the most effective collaboration between a UK consultancy and an overseas client, went to Blue Marlin and Cadbury Kraft Foods India for the Cadbury Bournvita project.

Elmwood cemented its position at the top of the DBA Design Effectiveness League Table for the fourth year running, leading nearest rival Pearlfisher by 50 points.

You can see the full list of Design Effectiveness Award winners here: www.effectivedesign.org.uk.

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Comments
  • Tim Masters November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Mailonline may not be the prettiest news website, but it certainly seems to be the most effective. Those results are impresive.

  • Ben Turner November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Its an effective piece of design with impressive results. however I wonder how long it will be before a responsive redesign is on the cards?

  • Stephanie Brown November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Great to see digital recognised with Grand Prix. Just read through the entry and it is indeed a masterclass in successful design. Also goes to show that design impact can often take years to measure, sometimes a challenge for client side marketers who are under pressure to prove effectiveness of their investments very quickly.

  • Franki Goodwin November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I find the disingenuity of this article everything that is wrong with the design community. The reason this site is so popular is because everyday it publishes paparazzi pictures, mostly of women, and comments on their cellulite, marriage status, eye puffiness, arm fat and everything else inbetween… it’s salacious to an extreme and is percieved as an embarrassing addiction to most who visit – to the extent that it is commonly known as the ‘sidebar of shame’.

    To suggest the success is entirely (or in anyway!) linked to a 3 column grid just makes us all look stupid.

  • Alex Breuer November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    this is the pound shop of news websites… full of cheap tat of momentary value. Its success story is much more a piece of social commentary than it is a meter of effective web design

  • Michael Speke November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    You’ll find on my browser home page (Safari) my Top Sites: The Guardian, CNN, Mailonline, BBC Iplayer, F1Fanatic, Autosport, JAF1 (James Allen on F1),99U, Behance, Graphis, Design Week and Cool Hunting.

    Unsure what that says about me, but I know I don’t go to Mailonlne for design trends.

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