News:Â London design studio Brand42 has won an award for design effectiveness after its redesign of Mail Online made it the most popular news website in the world.
Brand42 picked up the Design Effectiveness Awards' Grand Prix for its work on the Daily Mail's website, which now attracts over 91 million unique monthly visitors and generated advertising revenue of £25 million in 2012.
Traffic to Mail Online has grown almost fivefold and advertising revenue has jumped by 455% since the site was redesigned in 2008, when Brand42 introduced a simple three-column grid layout. The right-hand column now includes a feed of celebrity news known to as the "sidebar of shame".
If printed out the homepage - which was redesigned to incorporate more, larger images to make it look more like a magazine than a newspaper - would measure 5.16 metres in length.
The Grand Prix is the top prize at the annual Design Business Association's awards ceremony and is given to the design project that delivers the greatest commercial benefit. The judging criteria for the awards "aren't related to standards of aesthetics or 'good' and 'bad' design" .
Last year we reported on the launch of the UK government's new website, which was built according to 10 principles of good design devised by Ben Terrett, head of the Government Digital Service – read the 10 principles and listen to our interview with Terrett.