If you want your user interface design to appear at its cleanest, you will probably want to adopt some minimalistic techniques when building it. A completely minimalistic website will be incredibly easy to use for just about anybody, and because of that, is considered a cornerstone in website design.
If you want to improve an existing website, consider employing some minimalistic concepts. If your layout is packed full of information and pictures, it can appear too cluttered and sloppy, something that takes away from its value. Finding the ideal amount of minimalism for your particular website can be a challenge, but it can be difficult find the sweet spot.
Web Design Tips From Minimalistic Websites
One of the most important concepts you can borrow from minimalistic websites is the importance they place on only the most necessary inclusions. Although a cool banner might look great and add some aesthetic value to your website, is it really necessary? Could you get away with a small logo that doesn’t take up nearly as much space?
In order to figure out what’s necessary and what isn’t when it comes to your website, you need to objectively analyze each and every section of it. Ask yourself the same question regarding each section: is this absolutely necessary? You’d be surprised how much clutter you can clean up with this simple technique.
Controlling the use of fonts
A lot of websites go crazy with fonts. A good website will use a very clean and visible font, and tend to stick to that font for most of the content. Titles may be a different size or font, but generally, all the body text on a website should be the same. If it’s not, you run the risk of people adjusting to one type of font and then being thrown off when they view another page.
Colorful is good, too colorful is bad
When designing a website, it’s very important that you include color. Without color, your website will be quite boring and unappealing. However, some people that design websites go a little overboard. Generally, including four, five, or six different colors in a website is bad. Going with one or two main colors and incorporating different shades of those colors is a much better idea. It still gives variety without the noisy rainbow feel.
Clean navigation is key
One of the most important parts of any website its navigation. Without proper navigation links, there would be no way for anybody to browse the website correctly. Because of this, a lot of importance is placed on having navigation that works.
Clean navigation is virtually synonymous with simple navigation. If your cleverly designed navigation is effective but difficult to use for someone who’s new to computers, it’s basically worthless. Design your navigation with the most computer illiterate people in mind—your traffic stats will thank you later. Any user interface design worth its salt will be accessible to as many types of browsers as possible.
Final Thoughts
Keeping things simple is easiest way to design cleaner interface, stick to what you really need & what you don’t. Share your thoughts on what you think will make a cleaner user interface.
Guest Post by Mary Rogers
Mary Rogers has over 5 years of experience as a website designer and content writer for many website design and Online Marketing communities. Her capabilities include small business website design, information site architecture development, web flow diagrams and user interface design. Apart from having in-depth knowledge in website design her passion is to share what she knows about website design, budget web design and web development. She is an avid Blogger and writes regularly for Robotforce.com
