Minimalism in Website Design

When you make something minimalist, you cut out the unnecessary. Regarding websites specifically, minimalism keeps the style practical, purposeful and essential. Especially since AMP was introduced, some think that you need to strip a website down to its skeleton. Most designers would agree that minimalism is simplifying the interface by removing irrelevant elements.  

What is minimalism? 

The definition of minimalism is: “Being or offering no more than what is required or essential.” 

Minimalism is a popular design approach. It’s not just a fad or trend.  Some may say it’s a way of thinking. Minimalism is “less is more” and “to eliminate the essential”. 

What are the benefits of minimalism in web design? 

• Faster loading time to keep visitors on your site 

With no unnecessary detail, colour, shapes or transitions slowing the site down, a minimalist website is more likely to load faster and therefore, increase the chance of visitors remaining on the site for longer.  

• Focus on the user with a simple layout 

Lots of empty, clean space and a hidden or subtle navigation allows the design to be full of essential elements, in turn, resulting in the website being simple to navigate. With the rise in the use of mobile devices, having a minimalist design creates better compatibility between screen sizes. 

This simple layout also means that visitors can focus on your products or services without being distracted by features which aren’t essential. Take advantage of the white space you have available. It’s just as important to think about what you do include on your website as it is to think about what you don’t include. 

• Demonstrate hierarchy with typography 

With hundreds (possibly thousands!) of fonts to choose from, you can play with them more when the design is minimalist. It’s not about the font you choose, but how you use it. It’s not best practice to use the same font throughout your site, however, don’t go over three if you are trying to stick with a minimalist design. Instead play with the weight, size and line/letter spacing.   

• The power of contrast to draw attention 

You can get strategic with what you draw attention to. Playing with light and dark colours, size and shape, you’re signifying what is more important for a user to look at an interact with. It creates impact and personality and allows you to control what your user focuses on and what you want to stand out. 

• Providing fewer options 

Having more options to choose from on a site, requires more response time. You don’t want your users to suffer from decision paralysis, give up and leave your site. Particularly when you are creating e-commerce site, implementing a minimalist design can benefit your users by requiring them to make decisions which seem smaller when they have fewer options to click. It doesn’t feel as daunting to make a final decision on a product or action if there are fewer choices. 

When should a minimalist design be chosen? 

At first, it may seem perfect for what your website’s intentions are, but it doesn’t work for every business. Minimalism is great for one-page websites or websites that sell a few products, but for a large e-commerce shop, it doesn’t usually work well. 

When deciding whether to take a minimalist approach to your website design, there are some things to consider: 

Your audience 

Whether you decide to go ahead with a minimalist design will significantly depends on how your audience behaves and what you want them to do on your site. An older audience may prefer a minimalist approach, while a younger audience may lean towards colour, shape and interaction. What does the data tell you? What does your audience tell you? 

Minimalist design also allows you to polish your message and focus on what’s important. 

Your products 

Which products do you want to shine a light on? If you’ve got a lot of products that you’d like to show off equally, this may not be the right design for you. But if you have a smaller range of products and there are one or two you’d like to be the main focus at a time, a minimalist design may be perfect for you to do just that. 

The time you have 

There might be fewer elements to your site overall, but don’t mistake minimalist website design for a quicker solution. The design must be simple but not limiting or primitive. It's a balance which can take time. 

When deciding whether to take a minimalist approach, another significant consideration is your audience. How clear is the information you want them to view? How do they typically navigate around a site? What is the purpose of them visiting your site? These are the kind of questions you need to ask yourself before deciding to go ahead with a minimalist design. 

Whether you decide on a minimalist website design or not, or you at least implement some of the typical elements of the aesthetic, remember it’s not as simple as it initially seems. Even though minimalist website design has evolved only slightly over the last few years, typographic, techniques, trends and user expectations have changed considerably. 

If you’re looking to use your site content more efficiently across devices, want to make the whole content process faster or in the process of redeveloping your site, then talk to us and we can help you to understand whether this is the right option for your business to go down. You’re welcome to contact me via email at [email protected] or call me directly on 0121 616 0093.