Website design has become an important topic for every business owner.  With websites being one of the most central components of your corporate identity the need to get it right is critical.  Our first tendency is to get as much on the website as possible.  We want to make sure our potential customers know everything about us. But all that does is overwhelm and confuse the user and ultimately they click away form your site.

Minimalism is a powerful technique in web design. By prioritizing content over chrome, minimalism allows for a simple, yet memorable, user experience. As a result, minimalist designs lead to faster loading times and better compatibility across different website platforms.

The reach of the minimalist web design movement is extensive: Google pioneered a minimalist interface in its beta offering during the 1990s, and design trends, such as hero images and hidden global navigation, are all derivatives of the style. What makes the web design approach so appealing to users, though?

Website Design Focusing on the Essentials

Through a minimalist web design strategy, a brand can take out unnecessary elements that distract users from the content. After all, with less elements on a screen, the remaining ones become more potent and prominent. As the famous 20th-century architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe put it, “Less is more.” The trick to minimalism, therefore, lies in designing around the content and leaving enough secondary elements without confusing the user.

As you are able to draw the attention of the user to the most critical components of your website design you are able to focus them on a specific call to action (CTA).

Minimalism can be tricky to get right. Bold beautiful typography, well-defined and well-placed whitespace, a carefully executed color palette, and —  most importantly — making smart decisions about which design elements to include and leave out are some of the things that are factors in producing a great minimalist design.

Negative Space: The Most Important Feature of Minimalism

Minimalism leverages the power of negative space as it functions to guide the user’s visual flow. Since every detail carries a lot of weight, minimalistic web design packs a powerful visual punch by using the following visual characteristics:

• Vivid photography – powerful photos create a lasting emotional connection and add definition to the surrounding minimalist interface.
• Minimal colors -designing with limited colors give a website more impact and create better visual interest.
• Bold typography – using dramatic typography gives an immediate focus to the words and content.

Visual Harmony

To be most effective, a minimal website design framework needs a solid backbone. The key components of visual organization include a prominent grid, visual balance, and close attention to contextual alignment. As you tie all of these elements together and create visual harmony your audience will be attracted to creative form and unique content.

To create effective visual harmony consider:

• Horizontal symmetry: Both sides of the screen have equal weight with similar groupings of elements.
• Approximate symmetry: Elements are different on the screen, but the visual weight is the same; this is often accomplished by pairing a lot of space or one large element against a grouping of smaller elements.
• Radial symmetry: The focal point of the design starts in the center of the screen and moves outward in an almost concentric-circle style pattern, such as the Carlo Barberis site below.
• Asymmetry: Objects are designed to purposefully counter one another on the screen with shapes, colors and sizes of contrasting styles. This is arguably the most difficult layout to execute well, considering there’s only a fine line between a visually interesting layout and a confusing mess.

Fewer Interface Elements, more Usability

Just because minimalism is simple, that doesn’t mean it’s easier to pull off. Even with fewer elements, it is still necessary to create the same level of usability. So, make sure you follow the one concept, one page rule to increase your website’s appeal. Additionally, create killer copy by including only the bare minimum to relay your message. Meanwhile, when it comes to achieving easy navigation, make sure you include a permanently visible navigation option for your users.

At FireRock Marketing, we believe in the importance of creating a marketing-activated website to differentiate a brand from its competitors and generate more leads. Our web design and development services can help give your website a minimalist appeal and turn it into a powerful form of communication.  As marketing consultants we are focused on creating the best user experience while driving traffic to your website.