minimalist website design

Many website designers talk at length about the importance of content. They feel that content (whether written or visual) should always take precedence over design as it is substance and not style that draws, engages and retains visitors.

To a large extent all of this is true. And it's also fairly obvious. But what is not so obvious is that most websites would benefit greatly from having much less design than is generally considered the norm.

What I am advocating here is minimalism: throw out all of the clutter; do away with gimmicks and flourishes; take an axe to drop shadows, reflections and colorful backgrounds; and get rid of anything else that does nothing to enhance the content. In other words, let content truly be king.

The problem with this approach is that minimalist design is much harder that many people might realise. In fact, minimalism is probably the most challenging style of website design there is.

The reason for this is that when all extraneous design is removed, the content that remains is thrown into much sharper relief. As such, errors and inconsistencies become more visible, typographical flaws are exaggerated, and any layout issues are immediately apparent. In other words, for a minimalist design to succeed it needs to be as close to perfection as you can get, and certainly much more precise than a “conventional” design.

So, what's the key to creating a great-looking minimalist website? The answer is simple: I don't know! All I know is that this approach is the holy grail for many web designers and (in my opinion) very few designers have discovered it. I guess I need to keep looking!