Minimalist design is a lot of design principles

This article is translated from a foreigner's article (original text), but not completely literal translation, the article has added some my experience and the idea:

As designers, we all know that a simple design can create very beautiful results. However, many designers get into trouble when they actually do it, and it's very difficult to design a page with quite a few elements, and the result is that the page looks like it's not finished. There are many articles on minimalist design on the web that can help you achieve results, but it is not the only way. Now, I'm going to give you some examples of minimalist design, and you can analyze why some can work and some don't.

What is a minimalist design?

Minimalist design can be described as the most basic design, removing extraneous elements, colors, shapes and textures. The goal is to make the content stand out and become the focus. From a visual point of view, simple design is calm, so that the user's mind in the most original place. Design development began in Switzerland, then applied to a variety of media: graphic design, architecture, music, literature, painting, and more recently talked about web design.

Although the minimalist design developed over the decades, the early internet did not show the effect. There is not even the rotation of the logo, picture scrolling and bright colors, web design chaos and irregular. In fact, we can return to the basic principles of simple design. But even if you choose not to pursue minimalist aesthetics, here's lessons can help you simplify your design, or your style.

Less is more

As mentioned earlier, minimalism gives users the most important content and minimizes the distractions of users. If a page has too many elements, the viewer will go to look for important content and consider each element's priority. A minimalist design that puts all the emphasis on the content.

Give a gorgeous colorful display of black and white on the design, this must be to get the user's attention. Let the color itself become the focus. Let's take a look at a concrete example:

You may have seen this design: a pure white background, a clear distinction between content and a graphic element. Graphic elements bring in colors, textures, and shapes. These are obviously the most important elements on the page, and it defines the designer's ideas and ideas. The complexity of this particular graphical element makes more content on the page less obvious and important. Let the subject content appear concise and prominent, the designer has perfectly balanced this point.

How to minimize content

The first step is to create a minimalist design, or simplify the layout, not simply cut most of the graphics, but to rethink the content and remove unwanted requirements. Only then will the most important elements be able to achieve the desired effect on the page. Just like you plan any website, write down what you need: Logo, description, navigation, etc., and remove all unnecessary modules. As much as possible to cut. Here are some elements that you may not need. Keep in mind that this is just some guidance. Specific designs are determined according to specific requirements. Here are some of the things that we can simplify in designing websites:

Social media icons or graphics, or related chapters

Banners and detailed descriptions or introductions

"Related", "most popular" and "recently browsed" lists (including Twitter and RSS listings)

Pages with more than three major sections (such as "Introduction", "about" and "services")

Second-level navigation page

The key here is not to cut the functionality of the site, but to cut unnecessary elements (thereby highlighting the necessary subject matter), or to combine some modules into a simple layout. You can also split the contents of individual modules to make separate content more interesting.

How to simplify the design, now to do is to simplify the design as much as possible. Minimalist design should be a little textured texture, color, shape, line, content and other types. Not too bold, so the design of the feeling will become boring. We throw everything away and highlight the theme by creating highlights. So how to create visual highlights, remember some of the methods shown below, flexible to use in your work or design process.

Use a large wire frame

In the following sections, we see some designers add subtle colors, unique typography or interesting shapes that add visual effects. Although it's just a wireframe, but it's the most important element, creating such a page wireframe requires extra detail. With the right wireframe, you can highlight the theme and level of the page and create a visual effect.

When you use a wireframe, you can follow these steps:

Determine what you need most

In the list of modules, the preferred content

Draw some important modules of the Wireframe sketch test, look at the visual effects

When we draw the line frame, consider the position, how to do the visual processing. For example, if your logo has a color, you can reuse the logo color design, plus a certain auxiliary color to highlight the theme.

Web page left White

The white page design is actually synonymous with minimalism. No matter how creative you are with it, not enough white design is not really minimalist design. So, be sure to add more white space around the elements you normally use. Leaving White is a number of elements that need to be balanced on the page before they appear.

Balance, alignment, contrast

Although most of the page load can be done by leaving White and wireframe, the basic principles of design also need to consider some special circumstances. Includes these three pieces: the balance of the site, alignment and content contrast. Be sure to adhere to these principles so that your design does not need to be supplemented by additional content to illustrate that it is a complete design.

Keep these basic design principles in mind. Go back and try different ways to achieve the best results. You can click on the address of the above picture to learn more about the design principles.

When the tedious design becomes a habit

Cumbersome design can sometimes become a habit. No matter how hard you try to keep the design simple, it sometimes comes out with a complex effect. In order to solve this problem, we must form new habits. If you find yourself in a corner, "lost", first try to discard something, rather than incorporating something new. Every aspect of minimalism requires a different talent. If you use these principles properly, your design will become simpler. Further, once you have used the tools we have discussed here to see if the finished works can find ways to simplify further. You can focus on ambiguity in the design process, and you can ask other designers to point out some of the elements that you may have missed in the process of deletion.

The charm of minimalism

Here are some brief minimalist design presentations. Look at how these work out the principles we are discussing. Also see what breaks our guidelines and think about how they are manifested:

1.James Day Photo

2. Killswitch Collective