Introduction
What is minimalist design?
How to minimalist design
1. Negative space
2. Large and vivid photography/video
3. Dramatic use of typography
4. Beautiful contrast
Sources:
What is minimalist design?
- "A minimalist web-design strategy is one that seeks to simplify interfaces by removing unnecessary elements or content that does not support user tasks."
How to minimalist design
1. Negative space
- Negative space (AKA white space, but it does not have to be white) is just the empty space between visual elements. More empty space means more emphasis on existing elements.
- The goal of negative space is to draw more attention to the content itself. Content-first design is the core of the minimalist philosophy.
- Negative space serves to manipulate the user’s visual flow. As a rule, the more negative space around an element, the more the eye is drawn to it.
- Negative space allows for more comprehensive organization of elements, preventing the design from overwhelming the user.
- Generous negative space also creates a sense of luxury.
- Remove the unnecessary. Spend extra time planning out the site and defining your purpose early on to eliminate extras that were just filling up space.
- Usability is not optional. Check out more detailed post.
- How will adding or removing negative space impact the communicated hierarchy of the page?
- How will the negative space impact what content is displayed at the top of the page? The page fold still matters: users will scroll if they have a reason to, but they pay more attention to the content at the top of the page.
- How will the negative space impact the interaction cost: will users need to work harder to get to the information that they need?
- How will the negative space need to change at varying resolutions?
2. Large and vivid photography/video
- Oversized photographs add a comforting touch of familiarity without dominating the foreground.
- The visual minimalist characteristics should be present in the photograph, otherwise you lose the advantage. For example, choose a high-definition photograph composed with ample negative space – expansive skies, or empty white walls as above. Choosing a busy photograph full of distracting items only negates the benefits of the surrounding minimalist interface.
- An argument can be made for the ability of large background images/videos to create an impact on users’ perception of brand.
- Loud background images will keep otherwise minimalist designs from being too boring or stark.
3. Dramatic use of typography
- As emphasis is added to the elements that remain, by extension emphasis is added to typography. Beautiful, sharp and even custom typography is a perfect focal point in a minimal framework.
- The most impressive examples of minimal design and typography often include bold styles (with thick strokes) and interesting letterforms (such as a dominant typeface for headlines paired with a neutral typeface for other content).
- Like color, bold or large typography becomes another tool for communicating meaning when there are few elements on the page.
- Effectively exploiting interesting typography can help compensate for having fewer elements like photos and graphics, and can make a minimalist design feel more visually engaging. Variations in font size, weight, and style become crucial in helping users understand the hierarchy and relative importance of text.
- Drawing attention to bold typography is only useful when that text communicates meaningful information.
- Beware of going overboard on the fancy typography: users can ignore over-formatted text if it looks too much like advertising.
4. Beautiful contrast
Sources:
- http://thenextweb.com/dd/2015/06/09/7-pillars-of-minimalist-web-design/
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/characteristics-minimalism/
- https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/less-is-more-fundamentals-of-minimalist-web-design--webdesign-8
- http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/12/minimalist-web-design-when-less-is-more/
- http://usabilitygeek.com/less-is-more-importance-minimalist-web-design/
- https://www.sitepoint.com/less-minimalist-websites-still-rule/