A website header is one of the most important parts of designing a website. It plays a crucial role in grabbing visitors’ attention and establishing a connection with them.
Designing a website header can be challenging unless you have an understanding of the intricacies involved. Before website header design, using a prototyping tool to turn your ideas into prototypes and test until it fully meets your needs.
Before we get into our list of header designs, we should answer the following questions:
A website header is the part of your website that appears at the very top of your page. The header is the very first thing your visitors see when they land on your page.
A website header should do at least two things: inform the visitor that they have come to the right place and simultaneously guide the visitor to explore the site further.
There’s a saying that states you never get a second chance to make a first impression. You have approximately 6 seconds to present who you are and what your brand is.
To this end, your header design must be unique and appealing. Below are some elements you may want to consider displaying in your header:
First, some sort of brand identity, for example, your company logo, slogan or a hero image. Second, your contact information including your email, address or telephone number. Third, a search button. In addition, you may also want to consider adding language options, social media links, a subscription field, and free trials of your products.
Although device screens come in larger sizes, the most recommended header size is still 1024px ×768px. Most successful and popular websites use the same size for their header design. If you do want to know more, check the table below:
The header and footer are both key elements of a website. They contain links to that potential customers will most often want to visit before making a purchase or enquiry.
The footer is just as important as the header because it offers one last chance for you to grab a customers’attention and encourage them to complete an action, such as making a purchase or requesting information.
When designing headers and footers, you should probably think about making them feature the same design style. If you want to know more about header and footer design, check out The New Way to Build Website Header & Footer [5 Inspiring Examples].
Below, we’ve selected 20 of the best free website header design templates and examples for your header design inspiration. Enjoy!
Baianat is a multidisciplinary company with a detail-oriented mentality that operates in the fields of design, business, development and technology. Its header design really conveys the brand by using a simple yet powerful design. The bold typography really catches users’ attention. In addition, it also contains hidden navigation.
Mockplus Cloud is a brand-new collaboration platform for product design. Its header design contains a video that plays automatically, demonstrating the main features of the product. It also contains a CTA to lead uses to free trial.
WPS is a powerful office software similar to Word. Its header design uses dynamic illustrations to represent a work environment. It also uses animations to make the whole page more vivid. In addition, it features an engaging CTA.
In order to make more room for the search box, Godaddy features a hidden navigation. The reason for this is that Godaddy’s business heavily involves user search actions.
Slack’s header design contains almost everything. The logo, the navigation, the free trail CTA, an input button and more. The whole interface is clean and appealing. There are floating elements that represent the functionality offered on the site.
As its name suggests, this site is really cool. It includes many interesting micro-interactions. All the CTAs contain micro interactions when clicked on.
Ana-santos is a UX designer’s personal page. Its header design stands out thanks to its bold typography, illustration, well-designed logo, eye-catching CTA and the navigation.
Oven uses a hidden navigation so the whole page remains visually simple and clean. Only the core elements are displayed in the header. Additionally, the site also uses a big hero image to catch users’ attention.
The header design of Green mountain energy is very appealing. The hero image is particularly noteworthy, containing cartoon-styled sheep in the real grass. The CTA is also very appealing.
Impossible-bureau is one of the more aesthetically appealing sites on our list. It uses vibrant colours and textures to make the page more appealing.
One of the best things to come out of Google Material Design is our willingness to use more vibrant colors, layers, and gradients in web design.
Monstroid2 is a multipurpose website template with an appealing header design. It features an oversized hero image and boasts clean, crisp design. It also features bulletproof layout consistency and an intuitive navigation. In addition, it offers many customizable niche layouts with which you can build your website. It is also fully responsive and will adapt itself to any mobile or tablet device.
DreamSoft is a multipage website template designed for a software development company. Its header places the product first, along with a catchy headline in bold typography, so the visitors can quickly understand the business. Showcasing a new or top-selling product is a good way to catch users’ attention.
Perquetry is multipage HTML website template for an elegant flooring company. It’s features one of the best header design templates on this list. It uses modern design features to create a better user experience. Three noteworthy elements of the site include:
If you want to view more parallax scrolling websites for inspiration, you can check these 23 Best Examples.
Smart features a responsive bootstrap 4 CSS website header design. It uses a video as a background. The video background is still one of the best solutions for designing a home page header.
Botanic Garden uses eye-catching typography and a large picture that closely relates to the theme of the website. In addition, the image can create a contrast and emphasize core information. It also features responsive design, PSD files with a clear layer structure, changes in content, website header code and integration with cms.
Fluid is a creative animated coming soon template. It comes with four different layouts. There are four types of header designs for choose from. The first features an image background, the second a background slider, the third a video background, and the last features minimal layouts.
Interior is an Interior and Furniture responsive website template. It features a very simple and clean design. If you hover your mouse to a CTA, it will respond with a micro-interaction. There are plenty of social media options on the right to get you connected. It also uses bold Google Web Fonts to make the whole interface more cohesive.
Olly is a stylish, fast, and good-looking Advertising Agency Multipage HTML5 Template. The template features the most amazing header including the navigation, a logo, CTAs, and a search button. The left features an engaging image and the right, typography and a CTA to get in touch. The images and black background creates a harsh yet appealing contrast.
More HTML website templates: 20 Best Simple HTML Website Templates for Free Download in 2019
As a fully responsive and modern HTML5 Bootstrap website template, Photo Studio uses a categories carousel in its header design. Each image presents a category and if you hover your mouse, it will be highlighted. It also features advanced UI kit, responsiveness and a huge collection of artwork and themes.
The color scheme for this responsive template boldly uses yellow as a main color and centered typography to present the site. The furniture picture displays detailed information when hovered over.
More header coding resources:
Header design in HTML resources
CSS website header design resources
Above were some great examples to consider when designing a website header. We hope these 20 best free website header design templates and examples bring you inspiration. Did we miss any other amazing website header designs? If we did, please let us know!
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