A minimalist design is one of the most significant design movements of the 20th century and the early 21st century. It is not the flashiest or the most popular, but it has definitely penetrated more fields than almost any other art or design trend. Everything from user interfaces to hardware designs and even to the web and visual designs today — all these fields and more are now influenced by minimalism.
But why are we seeing a sudden movement of designers overhauling their designs to go with a simple and plainer look? Spyre Studios gave a direct answer to this question:
“The reason why minimalism penetrated so many fields yet is less known than, say, pop art or something, is because it’s more of a principle than a visual style. And since it is only a principle and direction of designing, designers outside of architecture and industrial design can apply and improve their designs as well – including many web and visual designers of today.”
The Benefits of a Minimalist Web Design
When properly done, a minimalist website can be one of the most effective methods in creating a visually appealing website. It has so many benefits, but Nexus Websites rounded up all of them into two general advantages: responsive design, and less maintenance and faster response times.
- Responsive and Easily Modifiable Design. A well-built minimalist website will be structured through a wire-frame and grid based system. this can make the transition to different screen resolution, mobiles and tablets, much simpler. Also, with a lot less different contact parts on a website, it will make it much easier to modify the design for mobile devices.
- Less Maintenance and Faster Response Times. A website with less contact, widgets and design aspects will be a lot quicker to maintain and update. It will use a lot less data which means a much shorter load time for users, creating a much better user experience. Long loading times, even over just a second, will start to frustrate and deter the users from your site.
How to Simplify Your Web Design
Too often, web designers find it elusive to simplify a website design. No matter how hard you try, you just could not achieve a look that is similar to Apple’s. So what should a website designer do? Hongkiat.com rounded up 5 starting points to simplify your web design.
- Focus only on essential elements
- Get rid of all unnecessary elements
- Reduce the number of pages
- Get more content above the fold
- Limit your color scheme
Now that you are armed and ready, you can now start simplifying your web design. You will be more proud showing off your more appealing website, and your visitors will have a more enjoyable experience browsing it.