The Storage.co.uk Award for Website Design

Many studies of internet use suggest that people browsing online have limited attention spans, and quickly give up on a webpage if they aren’t presented with what they’re looking for.

What they want is a well-designed website where relevant information is presented succinctly and obviously, without being wrapped in unnecessary layers of pages. It’s even better if the website makes some kind of useful innovation to the field, or does something that makes it really stand out.

We went through every single website in the Storage.co.uk directory, looking for the ones that best met these criteria. Here are the five winners:

Black Hole Storage – This unusually named self storage firm, based in Wiltshire, has an excellent website where every page is strikingly coloured black to match the company brand image. Information is spread across neat, minimalist pages linked by obvious tabs that direct users easily to whatever they’re looking for.

Storagebase Self Storage – A small chain with sites in Oxfordshire and Surrey, this self storage firm has a website that manages to be busy without looking too cluttered. Once again, a plethora of useful tabs directs the user to whatever they’re looking for, while the red and white branded design gives it a sleek, well-organised feel. There is also some welcome levity in the sidebar series: “We can’t store your (fish/kids etc)… We can store (his bowl/their toys etc).”

Easy Access Self Storage – The website of this family-run company in Cheshire uses black/grey and orange for their main website colour, giving it a clean and efficient look that matches its functionality. Easy Access also make excellent use of pictorial links to connect their website’s different pages.

Lock and Leave Self Storage – An independent self storage firm in Wandsworth, South London, their homepage cleverly uses a short promotional film to prevent users from being put off by too much text. Large and obvious link buttons then direct people around the rest of the well-designed site, while a strong blue and white colour scheme lends everything a gleaming sheen of professionalism.

Budget Storage.co.uk – This firm, which has several sites across the Midlands and one in Wales, also uses a promotional film on its homepage to do the work of large blocks of  text. The website then pulls off the difficult trick of looking busy without being too cluttered, as a series of well-designed tabs clearly directs users between the different pages.