Saturday, November 20, 2010

Minimalist Web Design

While researching for my personal website, I came across a great post about minimalist web design. There are links to a ton of great sites and some general tips and trends.

Tips

Less is more; use only elements that are essential, that have a necessary purpose.

Omit needless things; if it isn’t necessary for the website to be functional, don’t include it.

Subtract until it breaks; take things away until it is no longer functional, then revert one step.

Every detail counts; with minimalist design, every detail counts. Think of the feel you want to project and decide on details to communicate that.

Colour minimally; once again with minimalist design colour really counts. Think about what the colours mean and how they interact with eachother.

White space is vital; necessary for minimalist design, white space or negative space is essential for hierarchy, to emphasize some elements more than others.


Trends

Gray; use it in combination with black and white for text, backgrounds, graphic elements, anything.

Big typography; often used in place of images to add more interest to a website.

Background patterns and images; subtle patterns and bold images can give a minimalist design punch.

Simple grids; bring order to a bare design.

Circles; found on many minimalist sites in headers or as accents in navigation.

Transparency; while it is not very common, it can make a huge visual impact.

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