Updated: 05 March, 2021
Web design reviews
As part of our market research, I wanted to find and review the best web development company websites. The goal was for us to ensure we are competing with the best and perhaps get some ideas for improvements. While doing the research I thought it may be useful for others if I document the process so here we are.
The first step was to find the top agencies and I did this by searching Google for "Website design agency <location>" and looking at the top organic results. Google is an expert at figuring out relevant authorities so I am going to take their word for it that these agencies are the best in their location. I am just going to cover a few of the biggest population cities in the UK for now as that's where we are based. If you want to feature in a website review in an upcoming blog post get in touch.
Website Ranking factors
Page Speed
One of the most important factors to consider when reviewing any website is page speed. The reason for this is simple if a web page takes more than 3 seconds to load then users will either not wait around or consider it a bad experience so I have run google page insights on all agency websites. Checkout Seoclarity for an in-depth article on why page speed matters and this video on the SEO importance of page speed.
In fairness to all websites (including our own) the performance tool was only run once for each client as scores can vary on each run.
Design
I ran a small survey with 10 participants to score the website designs out of 5 stars, then I averaged out the results to the nearest whole number. It is worth bearing in mind that an agency website might be tailored to a certain niche or audience so may work better for other groups of people. it's kind of hard to judge a design based on a small survey but I feel like the results are accurate.
Issues
I took a quick look through each site and made notes on any issues I found when browsing. I then gave a rating out of 5 (5 meaning no obvious issues). If you notice any issues with our site let us know and we will adjust our rating until we have a fix.
Results
| Agency Name | Location | Screenshot | Desktop Speed | Mobile Speed | Design Score | Stability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creative Brand Design | London |  |  |  |  | |
| Shape | Manchester |  |  |  | | |
| Alt Agency | Birmingham |  |  |  | | |
| Evoluted | Sheffield |  |  |  | | |
| Grizzly | Bristol |  |  |  | | |
| Maratopia | Leeds |  |  |  | | |
| Think Zap | Glasgow |  |  |  | | |
| Blue Frontier | UK |  |  |  | | |
| Outible | Liverpool |  |  |  | | |
Website features and issues
This section goes into further detail about what each website does well, the issues, and possible improvements.
Creative Brand Design - London
Best website features
COVID notice at the top of the page lets clients know they are still available for work
Great design, colour scheme, and fonts work well
Ajax contact form
Individual pages for completed work with in-depth details of implementation
Google partner and GDPR compliance
Awesome "Project Planner" with clear outlining of functionality
Issues
Text color clashes on portfolio page (white background with white text)
Cannot see the outline of form fields on the contact form so it could be confusing where to click
Small presence on social media
Shape - Manchester
Best website features
Big social media presence
Video testimonials
Very professional looking team pictures
Solid FAQ page
Simple contact page with good client-side validation
Lots of 5 star Google reviews
Issues
The phone link has an incorrect phone number (resolved)
Horizontal scroll issue (Resolution width 1280+)
Alt Agency - Birmingham
Best website features
Live chat
COVID notice at the top of the page lets clients know they are still available for work
Interesting blog posts
Interesting completed projects
Issues
Feedback from the survey mentions the colour scheme
The contact form sends a request before validation so if a user does not enter anything there will be a full page reload before the validation error is shown. Ideally, the validation should happen in real-time and the form should use ajax so the user does not have a full-page reload
An interactive map on the contact page might be useful for visitors who want directions to visit the office
Evoluted - Sheffield
Best website features
Best page speed on desktop devices
The colour scheme had great feedback from the survey
Good video content on the home screen
Real-time validation on the contact form
Nice maps directions feature and parking info
I could not find any obvious issue with their web site
Grizzly - Bristol
Best website features
Live chat
Cool Parallax image effect and component animations
Great explanation of each service
Share buttons on blogs for social media
Issues
When using a VPN on a mobile device a Captcha screen is displayed which is impossible to pass
The loading spinner takes a long time, performance should be worked on for mobile
The phone number and email address links did not work (tested on iPhone 11)
Navbar is Jumpy on mobile
Maratopia - Leeds
Best website features
The marketing guide downloads
Free digital advice
Issues
The text of the latest posts section of the footer is hard to read due to the colour contrast
The marketing page downloads form has padding issues with text and the image text does not fit in the cropped image circle
Generic error message on contact form does not specify which filed was wrong and all previously filled form fields are lost
Several JS console errors
The worst score for mobile performance
Think Zap - Glasgow
Best website features
Really simple but effective design
The Drum recommended and Google Partner
AJAX contact form
Issues
The contact form requires a request to validate
No real pictures of the team
Worst page speed on desktop devices
Blue Frontier - UK
Best website features
Partners with both Google and Microsoft
ISO standards
Awards
Cool component switching Team members images
Issues
Mobile performance could be improved
Home page banner moving around awkwardly on mobile
Best website by ranking factors
Best mobile page speed: Outible
Best desktop page speed: Creative Brand Agency / Evoluted
Best design: Creative Brand Agency
Most stable: Evoluted
Best content: Shape
Conclusion
All of the websites reviewed were great in their own right but if I were to choose a personal favourite I would go for either Evoluted or the Creative Brand Design website. There were no serious issues on either. Evoluted has awesome desktop performance and The CBD agency website scored highest in the web design survey.
Reviewing all of the best web development company websites has been a time-consuming task but we have learned a lot along the way which will help us continue the constant improvements to our agency website. We would love to hear some feedback from the web design community on our website so if anyone is up to the task then be sure to tag us in your post.
If you wish to speak to a website designer Liverpool, we are always happy to chat.
Further reading
If you where interested in this article you may also be interest in the top Web Development Companies in Liverpool.
Legal
This blog post contains the honest opinion of the author regarding all websites reviewed. Screenshots are legal under the Criticism and review copyright exceptions. All website issues stated are live on said websites at the time of writing and have been recorded for evidence, these are available upon request. Feel free to get in touch if an issue is resolved or performance is improved and we will update the blog post accordingly.