Web Design theory: Beautiful but not empty minimalist website design

As designers, we all know that a minimalist design can achieve beautiful results.

However, many designers have trouble implementing: either there is no time to make a page with so few elements look beautiful, or the end result just looks "imperfect".

There are many articles on minimalist design on the web, and the purpose of this article is to help you achieve a beautiful and not empty minimalist website design

Most importantly, we will show a small minimalist website Design Gallery So you can analyze why some designs can and others do not.

What is minimalist design

Minimalist design has been described as the most basic design, eliminating superfluous elements, colors, shapes and textures.

Its purpose is to make content stand out and focus. From a visual standpoint, minimalist design means calm and bringing thought back to the truth .

The design movement began in Switzerland and was then used in a variety of media: graphic design, architecture, music, literature, painting, and recent web design. (Broaden reading Wikipedia: minimalism)

Even though minimalism has been decades old, the early internet has not been able to show it. Even in addition to rotating logos, scrolling and bright colors, web design is often messy and aggressive .

We will discuss the fundamentals of minimalist web design in this article. But even if you choose not to pursue minimalist aesthetics, this article will also help you simplify your design, regardless of your style.

The simpler the more rich

As mentioned, minimalism brings the most important content to the fore and avoids distracting users. If a page has too many elements, the viewer will be puzzled by where to look or misunderstand the priority of each element. A minimalist design puts the focus right on the correct content.

For example, in a black-and-white design of any color spots, will arouse the user's attention. The color itself will also become the focus . Let's look at a concrete example:

You may have seen this design before: a white background, a block of content, and a graphic element.

Graphic elements use colors, textures, and shapes. Obviously this is the most important element of the page, and it represents the designer's brand and personality.

Because of the complexity of this particular graphic element, more of the content on the page makes it less visible and less important. Keeping the content to a minimum, the designer realizes the perfect balance.

How to simplify content

The first step in achieving minimalist design or simplifying the design is not simply to remove most of the pictures, but to rethink the content and simplify it to a naked need. Only in that way can the most important elements of the page achieve the desired effect.

As you plan any other site, write down what you need: Logos, introductions, navigation, and so on. Get rid of everything else you don't need. Get rid of them as much as possible .

Here are some elements you may not need. Please note that this is only a guide. Your exact needs will depend on your specific design. Some of the following elements may not be necessary for your site.

• Community media icon or graphic, or Community media section
• Propagandist and additional notes or introductions
• "Recommended," "Popular" and "latest" listings (including Twitter and RSS subscription lists)
• Pages with more than 3 major sections (such as "Introduction", "about" and "services")
• Secondary Navigation page

The key here is not to make the site less functional, but to remove elements that are not necessary (to emphasize the necessary elements) or to integrate multiple parts into a simpler layout (for example, by merging your community media into the "about" or introductory section).

You can also split content into separate pages and give more attention to each part of the content.

How to simplify the design

Now it's time to simplify the design as much as possible.

A minimalist design should have fewer textures, colors, shapes, lines, content, or typography. However, if it is too straightforward, the design will be empty. Rather than throwing away everything, it is better to design some appeal by adding an important feature to the focus.

Select the possible style of focus and pay attention to the techniques described below in your design process.

use a great wire frame

Through the theory below, we see some designers add some visual interest through subtle color fills, unique layouts, or interesting graphics. Perhaps the most important element they rely on, however, is a unique wireframe .

Creating a wireframe for such a Web page requires additional considerations. With the right wireframe, you can achieve the right level and organization as well as create the right visual interest.

To start a wireframe, follow these steps:

• Identify the content you absolutely need
• In a list, the priority of the content is differentiated
• Give your list to draw wireframe sketches to experiment with the best visual level

When the wireframe is made, consider the layout and the visual processing method. For example, your logo uses a color that is no longer reused elsewhere, and you have to explain why.

Extended reading: from wireframe to final design

Blank

whitespace is actually synonymous with minimalism.

No matter how creative your design is, a minimalist design that lacks a lot of white space is not a real minimalist design. This way, be sure to add more white space around the element than you normally do.

Whitespace is necessary to balance the few elements that will appear on the page.

balance, alignment, contrast

Although most layouts can be achieved through a blank and a good wireframe, pay special attention to the basic principles of design. The three most important factors associated with minimalist design are balance, alignment, and contrast .

Make sure that your design follows these principles, but does not require a supplemental visual aid to look "done".

Please also pay attention to other basic design principles. Check them back and experiment with different options to achieve the best results. See " Principles of Design " for more information.

when excessive design becomes a habit

Excessive design can sometimes become a habit. No matter how hard you try to keep a design simple, it eventually becomes messy and complex. To fix this, we must develop new habits.

Try to review the tips before each project and make them run through the design process. Concentrate on developing a habit every time. For example, try to reduce and simplify the content before it is put into space.

If you find yourself in a dilemma,"What's Missing", you can try to get it out first rather than adding something new.

Every aspect of minimalism requires a different talent. The more you practice these principles, the simpler your design will become.

Also, once you've used the technology discussed here, look at the final product and see if you can find a way to further simplify the result.

You can focus on areas that you are unsure of during the design process, and you can also ask other designers to identify the elements that you may be missing.

Minimalist Website Design Appreciation

The following is a brief demonstration of minimalist web design. Take a look at how the principles we discussed are implemented. You can also look at which one has broken our guide and think about why it works.

1. James Day Photo

2. Killswitch Collective

3. Lonely

4. Dbushell

5. xpd.no

6. Toy NY

7. Joshua Serbus

8. Ah-studio

9. Symour Powell

Icon Werk

Neil Wilson Architects.

Non-format

Zaum

Checkland Kindlysides

Blumenthal

Tink London

Proud Creative

Kimag

Bernat Fortet

All day

Some trends

As you can see, minimalist web design also has some clear trends. Understanding these trends helps to enhance our design in a number of ways.

We should not only derive inspiration from the layouts created by other designers, but also consciously break these trends to form our own creative approach.

Next, let's talk about some trends.

Black and white design

One of the most noteworthy trends is the widespread use of Black-and-white color . This is obvious: colors should be simplified in addition to textures, shapes and content. But lately it can overdo it and it's a bit dull.

Take a look at some of the color-defined sites shown above and see how they are highlighted from other minimalist sites. Also, think about how they can be kept minimalist even when such a strong color is used. Here is an example:

interesting typography.

Based on the layout of web design and minimalism closely linked together.

When designers lack the means to motivate users in other ways, they tend to use interesting typography. With typography as the only visual element you can go even further.

This is a bold technique, but it is still a trend in itself . Look for ways to maintain a unique and simultaneous layout enhancement design.

Flash

An astonishing number of minimalist website designs are based on flash. With so little visual stimulation, a design can benefit from subtle animations without being overwhelmed.

At the same time, Flash removes certain restrictions from the design process. Non-traditional wireframe, typography and other elements can be implemented more easily than traditional methods.

End

Minimalist web design comes in many forms, but we often see the same form repeated. Trends can become aggressive, and we must fight the impulse to imitate when we understand that a trend is feasible

In any case, minimalism can be pretty and will appear in the next few years, so learning some of its techniques will not be helpful either to your customers or to your own projects.

But if you are not interested in minimalist style, this tutorial and the difficult principles can help you simplify your design, which is a good thing anyway.