Mmm… nice.

I spend so much of my time looking at websites that don’t quite work that it’s a delight to come across one that does. The official site of London’s Natural History Museum is one of the most delicious pieces of design I’ve seen in a while. Putting together a web page that’s attractive and easy-to-use is a lot harder than most people think, and really good ones are quite rare. This is web design at its best: clear, simple, tasteful and uncluttered by nasty Flash animations and other distractions.

Of course, I’m not just talking about the overall “look” of the site. It works so well because there’s very good coordination between the layout, colours, and information architecture. The copy is crisp and to the point, and not unnecessarily “selly”, which is appropriate for a public institution like the museum. The only thing I don’t like is the Arial font. Font choice has a big impact on a user’s experience of a site, and I always think Arial looks a bit tatty. It’s fine as a default for users who have a really limited fontbook, but there are cooler fonts which are almost as common - Trebuchet? Lucida?

Annoying, I’ll can’t work out who’s designed it. There are no credits in the home page code or the stylesheet. Maybe it’s been done in-house? If so, the NHM has some employees who could make very good money in the design business.