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Minimalism in web design examples. Minimalism style in modern web design and its basic principles

Among other web design trends, minimalism occupies a special place. In the vastness of Runet, this trend is not particularly popular, and is often not used quite correctly. And for good reason, because minimalist design can look really amazing!

People are tired of big flow information, bright colors, pictures and other content that clutters up all the free space. Minimalism helps to get rid of the tinsel and focus on the essentials.

We hope this article will shed some light on this issue.

Roots of minimalism in web design

Many of today's most popular design trends (including flat illustration, large background images, and hidden navigation) are directly or indirectly related to minimalism, a web design movement that began in the early 2000s but borrows its philosophy from earlier movements. in the visual arts. Minimalism, when applied correctly, can help you direct your design towards simplifying user tasks.

Unfortunately, some designers misapply minimalism by focusing only on the visual side of the issue. They cut or hide important elements in the pursuit of a minimalist design for their own good, with no regard for user experience. They don't understand the basic essence of minimalism, and instead of making usability easier, they complicate it.

To better understand and apply the principles of minimalism, we must understand its origins and main characteristics. We explore these topics in a two-part series. In this first article, we will define minimalism and learn about its history. In the second article, we will analyze the characteristics of minimalist design and their impact on usability.

Minimalist interface - what is it?

When applied correctly, minimalist web design should be as simple as possible, in a direct way, to show the content without complicating anything or distracting the user from the main goal. This strategy often includes removing content or features that don't support the interface's primary goals.

There is a lot of debate about exactly what qualifies as minimalist web design. But there are a few commonalities that most designers highlight. These include flat textures, limited color palettes, and the use of negative space. These and other specific characteristics are discussed in detail in the next article in this series.

Designer Brian Danaher's portfolio site is a typical example of what many designers call a minimalist site. When viewed in full screen mode on 15 inch Macbook Pro, Homepage almost entirely white space. The site is designed in shades of gray palette, bold accents are set using interactive elements.

This site includes very few elements that detract from the main content. Minimalism works well for portfolio sites that have fairly simple goals, relatively low content volumes, and very similar information on most pages. Applying minimalism effectively to more complex sites can be tricky.

The Path of Minimalism to Popularity

1960s

Before minimalism became a trend in web design, it was a fine art movement during the post-World War II era. It arose as a reaction to chaotic colors, movements, and is often found in abstract expressionist works (such as paintings by Jackson Pollock).

In the 1960s, minimalism became popular in various fields, in particular fine arts and architecture. In the visual arts, minimalism is characterized by monochromatic palettes, geometric elements, consistency, and the simplicity of industrial materials.

Minimalists worth noting are graphic designer Josef Müller-Brockmann, artist Ellsworth Kelly, and industrial designer Dieter Rams. Notice the clean lines, simplicity, and sparing use of color in each of the examples below. Despite the wide variety of uses, a certain style of design is very tangible.

The motto of minimalism at this time was: "Less is more." This motto would later become the unofficial mantra of minimalism in web design.

1980-2000

At the end of the twentieth century, minimalism began to take shape as a separate direction in the field of human interaction with a computer.

The figures of this time advocated brevity and the elimination of unnecessary information from interfaces.

2000s

Beginning in the mid-2000s, echoes of minimalism as an art movement began to appear in web interfaces: more negative space, less content and limited color palettes. Google is often referred to as the pioneer of minimalist web interfaces. Google has prioritized simplicity and rigor in its interface since its beta launch in the 1990s.

Little has changed in 15 years. Users can see only three navigation options: to access the rest Google features, you need to open the menu.

Slowly but surely, minimalism has found a foothold. It began to be used by web designers, designers, artists, photographers, architects and developers.

2010-2013

The emergence of the concept of Responsive Web Design (RWD) in 2010 brought a new appreciation for the minimalist approach. For effective use RWD methods, organizations had to prioritize content. On mobile media third party elements could become a real problem - they could not be ignored in the same way as on desktop computers.

Gradually, user and design preferences began to lean towards the simplicity of web interfaces. This shift was highlighted by major upgrades by two technology giants: Microsoft's modern design in 2011, and Apple's release of iOS7 in 2013.

The release of Windows 8 in 2011 is the first major redesign of the operating system in decades. The new design philosophy has been completely implemented in the spirit of minimalism.

In 2013, Apple introduced a radically updated operating system in a flatter and more minimalist style - iOS7. Apple's decision to move towards a more minimal and flat design especially highlights the popularity of the trend, given that it is fundamentally at odds with the brand's historical design style.

2014-2015

Minimalist design principles are now appearing in new and unexpected places: e-commerce sites, online publications, and even educational sites.

Many sites that offer a wide range of services also opt for minimalism. This allows you to give customers exactly what they need, without distracting them with other little things.

Today, minimalism intersects with other web design trends such as flat design, responsive web design, and clean design. The contribution of Minimalism to these trends will be discussed in detail in next week's article.

Usability Debate: Is Minimalism Good for Users?

Minimalism is a strategy that significantly influences content and information architecture decisions. As a result, minimalism has a definite impact on the usability of interfaces. Not surprisingly, the usability of minimalist websites has become a topic of discussion among web professionals.

Proponents argue that minimalism reduces information overload: the more features and content you can strip away, the better. Minimalism, applied wisely, allows you to create a positive emotional experience for users. People tend to respond better to aesthetically pleasing interfaces.

But when designers adhere too rigidly to the ideology of minimalism, they run the risk of achieving wastefully low information density. Everything you need will be simply difficult to find, and navigation will be impossible to understand. Minimalism can be effective in moderation, as long as you don't lose sight of the primary purpose of helping users complete tasks.

A few tips for creating a minimalist interface

Make sure the minimalist design strategy is right for your website, your brand. If you're sure a minimalist design is right for you, follow a few tips:

*Use the motto: “Less is more” in your projects. Do not add unnecessary elements just like that. This rule can be true for both content and design, as well as user experience.

* Consider reducing any items that do not carry important information.

*Learn minimalism from Carroll: don't just cut out elements - think about the needs of your users, try to implement tasks as concisely and simply as possible.

*Know that minimalist visual design alone, without meaningful consideration of user objectives, will not lead to success. The usability issues of Windows 8 can serve as an example for you.

An in-depth discussion of the characteristics of minimalism will be covered in the next article, in a week. Follow the news!

It can often be found in the elements of flat (Flat) layouts or in material design (Material Design). The basic concept and characteristics remain virtually unchanged over time, for example:

Many people prefer to create projects in predominantly white and black color schemes.
As a rule, designers leave a lot of free space - especially in the areas around the central image.
Sans-serif fonts are also used.

The above points are not the main requirements of a minimalist design, but they are quite common and can serve as a kind of style indicator, regardless of the time period.

What is really important in modern minimalism is a special emphasis on one type of content, without competition from other elements. It can be a photo, a logo, or a simple block of text.

Navigation, contact information, and other objects are almost always less visible in a layout (although they may be present in the view or appear on scroll).

uppertodo.com

Recently, designers are also starting to incorporate animation into these kind of sites, following and wanting to make a web page more "live" and interactive. However, you need to be extremely careful with this. Animation should be unobtrusive, and performed in the same style (colors, font, etc.) as the main design.

Another major trend in minimalism is text size. Artists prefer sharp calibration - super-small or giant lettering with contrasting backgrounds and simple images. High contrast is great for creating focus in a simple structure and emphasizing the “right” content.

Benefits of Minimalist Design

Now let's move on to the most interesting, namely, the advantages of this direction and their use in real projects.

1. Lack of tinsel and disorder

What is excessive is not healthy. When creating a layout, it is very easy to get carried away, include everything you can, and as a result get a “bad dish with good ingredients”. As we said above, one of the most important principles of minimalism is not to litter the site with unnecessary objects that the user can do without. Each of the elements can be beautiful and functional on its own, but when they are put together, they become distracting and spoil the overall picture.

motocms.com

The first thing we pay attention to is the contrasting central block and the text header. Further, the eye falls on the categories / services of the company, where the visitor can immediately find what he needs. Nothing extra. Thanks to this, the layout is very popular.

By removing unnecessary details and simplifying it, you get a clean visual picture that is easily perceived by the audience. You will find more similar solutions in our selection.

Along with reducing clutter, a minimalistic design will help you focus on the most important elements of a web page. By making them more visible, you will show site visitors what to pay special attention to, and you can significantly increase the conversion of the project.

3. Increase creativity

The limitations of the minimalist style actually force the designer to use more creativity. Most often, it is much more difficult to remove and discard any details so that only the main thing remains in the template. Therefore, search simple solutions for the most effective implementation - this is a rather useful aspect of creativity, which contributes to the development of non-standard thinking of the performer.

4. Usability

Obviously, a layout with fewer elements is much easier to work with. For example, take the social network Facebook - it has a million features, thousands of different items, and quite a few distractions. The average user needs to spend quite a long time to learn how to use the platform and how to behave on it. For many, this is really difficult.

As an alternative, consider something like Tumblr or Instagram. The services also have quite a few features, like any social network, but the functionality becomes clear after a few minutes spent on the site.

The point of this fable is that a minimalistic design (and simple) is guaranteed to make your visitors feel at home and allow them to adapt to the features of a web project much faster.

orendasecurity.com

5. Less coding/development

When creating any template, it is desirable to think about how it will subsequently "work" on a real site. If a web designer forgets about the features of the code and gives himself up to a flight of fancy, which will become a nightmare for a coder, then it does not end well.

On the other hand, making a layout that would avoid unnecessary suffering during its further integration is a great opportunity for the performer to demonstrate his professional skills.

In general, the minimalist style in design is much easier to implement due to its simplicity and structure.

6. Better download speed and cross-browser compatibility

When a visitor goes to a minimalistic site, they can often expect it to work great in any browser. In addition, due to the lack of many images and details, your resource will load much faster, and the content will be easier to perceive. This point is very important both for the overall impression of the web project and for SEO.

belancio.com

7. Helps you focus on content

Despite the active development of the media format, text content is still out of competition. The minimalistic design serves it up perfectly and allows the visitor to focus solely on the content. However, we must not forget that the content of the site should be clear and concise.

Summing up

As you can see, it has a lot of advantages, thanks to which they remain popular regardless of the era and scope. Therefore, during the creation of your next project, we recommend that you pay special attention to this style. Even if you do not want to use it in its purest form, but simply borrow some principles, it will help you create really high-quality layouts.

The style of minimalism in web design has always been loved and in demand by designers. However, the apparent lightness of minimalist sites has a strict pattern, subject to certain rules and principles. Let's try to understand the main components of this attractive style with the help of an analytical review from Smashing Magazine.

1. Less is more
This phrase is probably the most famous description of the minimalist style. It was introduced by the artist Lubwig van der Rohe when describing the aesthetics of minimalism. In web design, this postulate is achieved by placing a very minimal number of elements, only those that are necessary for a particular design.

2. Eliminate unnecessary things
This phrase is borrowed from the authors of Strunk and White from their book The Elements of Style. There it sounded like "Get rid of unnecessary words." The authors used it to describe the minimalist philosophy. As applied to web design, this means don't include unnecessary elements in your design. To do this, concentrate on the main functions of your site and, based on this, leave only those functions and elements that are necessary.

3. Simplify to the limit
This means that try to consistently simplify the design to the limit of functionality and usability, to the point where the integrity of the site is violated.

4. Every detail matters
In a minimalist design, every detail you leave matters. It is precisely because of its small number and exclusivity that any element, be it a stroke around an image, a color palette, white space, a drawn line - all this will determine the face of your site, its emotions and style.

5. Minimal color palette
In a minimalist design, color takes on special meaning. The choice of color palette and accent color is especially important. And, although many designers prefer the classic options of white, gray and black, there is a place for absolutely any color in a minimalist design.

6. Importance empty space
Empty (most often white) space is the foundation of any minimalist design. It is the free space around the element that regulates its significance in the overall design and determines the hierarchy of elements.

7. Use gray
Gray is fundamental to minimalist design. Shades of gray are used as a background, in images, for writing texts. Gray color always looks stylish and advantageous on its own, as well as in combination with black and white.

8. Use great typography
The use of large typography is a powerful and interesting trend. A large inscription can perfectly combine the function of a decorative graphic element, and at the same time carry a certain semantic component.

9. Use background patterns and images
A subtle background pattern or an active background image can add spice and interest to a minimalist design.

10. Using Simple Modular Grids
The simplest modular grids are not necessarily minimalistic in nature, but are undoubtedly one of the most effective ways arrange the information on the site and indicate the links between the blocks.

11. Use decorative circles
All kinds of decorative circles are found in the headers in many designs, and are also used as accents in the navigation menu.

And in the TurboBlog guest post. This time we are pleased to offer you material prepared by Julia Solntseva — our freelance writer. In her first article for our blog, Julia shared her own vision of minimalist web design and backed it up with compelling examples. However, it is better to see once than to hear about it a couple of times.

Today, in the commercial art market, the desire for a minimalist form of information presentation is becoming more and more clear. And this trend is nothing new. This is a logical consequence of the development and change of stages in art. Once, in the 60s, minimalism first declared itself as a separate art direction. His appearance is a protest, a reaction to the absolute triumph of expressionism at that time, and especially its exaggerated form - abstract expressionism.

The modern world is going through various stages of development of Internet technologies. The era of web 1.0 has passed - the whole set of what was and what the Internet consisted of before the advent of web 2.0 technologies, the participants and direct creators of which we are all with you.

Recently, researchers in the development of Internet technologies, led by Jason McCabe Calacanis, the leader of Netscape.com, prophesy us an offensive new era- web 3.0, the specifics of which, apart from the fact that the Internet will become more socially oriented, they have not been able to formulate.rnUnderstanding the growing popularity of minimalism, or as it is also called - the art of ABC, in modern web design is impossible without considering the specifics of each stage web-technologies and visualizing its design.

The first stage of design development in the web 1.0 era. were characteristic:

flashy colors, mostly from the web safe palette;
ubiquitous yellow;
incredibly annoying contrast, such as white on blue or red on black;
a picture instead of a background and, as a result, a complete unreadability of the text;
the lack of a clear structure of the modular grid, and in especially severe cases - the modular grid itself.

This is what the websites of famous companies looked like in the 90s:

Designers knew and loved only one font - Comic Sans.But it should be remembered that design has evolved in parallel with Internet technologies. Designers had nowhere and no one to learn from - they were pioneers.

Then, at the turn of the 90s and 2000s, the development of design and graphics led to a race for creativity. Just a couple of years ago, designers tried their best to keep the visitor's attention with visual lures, whether it was an impressive flash or realistic 3D. Abstract forms and a non-standard interface - all this, of course, attracted the user's attention, but at the same time distracted him from the content of the site, in connection with which most sites did not fulfill their primary function - informing. As a result, today the Internet is oversaturated with template creative, which has made many sites of the same type.

It is true what they say: in our time, in order to be different, you need to be simple. And minimalism to some extent meets these requirements. As it used to be in painting, minimalism in web design today is an attempt to pull content out of the information noise, to place accents, to form a clear scheme of perception. Bright design is able to keep the attention of the visitor, minimalist - to direct him in the right direction.

Basic principles of minimalist thinking:

rejection of the subjectivity of perception;
rejection of symbolism and metaphorical forms;
amazing geometric clarity;
balance of contrasts;
neutral surfaces, soft textures.

Lazy designer or minimalist designer? How to recognize talent? To form a perception system, minimalist designers use certain methods. More about them.

Minimal use of graphics should not mean its absence.

Simplifying graphics to a minimum- one of the main techniques of minimalism, while minimalistic graphics should have their own style and semantic message.

discreet background color, basically - various variations of the combination of black and white, or mostly light colors, which will create a business style of the site and thereby evoke a feeling of trust, reliability, stability, seriousness in users. Highlight important information color.

Modular Grid Clarity- it is important. Information that has a clear structure is easily perceived and remembered.rnUsing a modular grid and guides will not only make it easier to structure all design elements relative to each other, but will also save a lot of nerves for the layout designer, who will calculate the dimensions of all substrate elements much faster.

User-friendly navigation. Navigation, simplified to a minimum, will speed up the process of finding information and understanding the structure of the site. This is one of the elementary ways to quickly convey information to the visitor. Web designers often resort to using simple navigation.

In the truest sense of the word - remove all unnecessary.Less graphics. If you decide to use photographic materials, make them a clear illustration of the type of activity of the company.

Palette. The correct selection of the palette is very important for the formation of the necessary perception of information. Minimalism is not a synonym for simplicity and dullness, or no color at all, minimalism is a style of presenting information. Art historians give only stylistic advice, and everything else is a matter of the web designer's taste and the customer's preferences.

Simplifying design, we take out the font in the first place. If text content is paramount for you, then the font for design is “king and god”. Experiment not only with types of fonts, but also with intervals, colors. There are a few interesting facts about fonts. Naturally, the designer, working with fonts, wants his site to look original. But the truth is that most of the users who are lucky enough to visit this site have only system fonts, and 99% have fonts Windows systems. So the experiment has its logical limitations, use non-standard fonts where appropriate: logos, inscriptions.

Scope of minimalism in web design As for me, minimalism, in principle, has no restrictions on the scope of its application. But the practice of using this direction has developed in such a way that most often
web designers use this style when creating the following sites:

business card site, portfolio:

Corporate website:

Restrained colors and the rejection of frills, easy navigation, clearly structured information and an emphasis on content will help create a business style.

blog / personal page:

Basically, the principles of designing a blog and a personal page are the same as the principles of designing a website. But there are differences that are set by the nature of the blogosphere itself: a side menu, simplified navigation, the main place is given to the text. good example, which demonstrates the principles of blog design, can be the style of the Facebook site. Nothing should distract the user from information and communication:

It should be remembered that when using a minimalist style in design, it is also necessary to take into account the specifics of fonts, color schemes and the corporate identity of the company as a whole.

Of course, the attitude towards minimalism in web design, as well as towards minimalism in art, can be different for different people: from complete admiration to complete rejection. The customer may not like the artist’s new current vision, it may seem to him that the designer simply did nothing, but the fact that the fashion for minimalism is only gaining momentum remains a fact. So, for example, a popular style in architecture and interior design - hi-tech - largely uses minimalist techniques:

Many photographers prefer this genre of photography, especially Lomographers. Using empty space as the main attribute to attract attention is the main technique of the genre:

And finally, I would like to voice the motto of minimalist designers, which very well expresses the essence of the minimalist direction in web design - "Doing more with less".

With the development of Internet technologies and web design, in recent years there has been a certain trend (not everywhere and not for everyone) to simplify the page. Simplification of both design and code. And this is the main idea of minimalism in web design, “less is more”.

The most important part of the page is the content, so minimalism eliminates everything unnecessary to make the content stand out. At the same time, the content, in turn, emphasizes the design. Creating such a site at first glance seems easier than, for example, a colored site with bright headlines, but it is not. Here it is very important to maintain the convenience of its use with the minimum content of the page.

And yet, it is very rare for a minimalist site to look ugly or not stylish. Therefore, minimalism, with its lightness and elegance, is most often used in some corporate websites, as well as blogs, portfolios, and social networks.

Today we will see examples of pages for each of these sections (at the end of the article - an overview of Russian sites in the style of minimalism):

Blogs

Here I decided to cheat, and at the same time to please you - I will post the most interesting free WordPress themes in the style of minimalism, so you can not only watch, but also download.

Pretty standard design, white background and small print.

There is already more creativity here - we see an interesting logo and a game with fonts.

Ulap

And here the font is large - and again, nothing more.

Doc

There is a lot of free space on this theme, there is also a red accent.

lead

A more “feminine” and softer design, the titles are even pink.

This theme combines photo and text while maintaining a large number of air.

And here is a more interesting background.

The last of the themes has a black background and small accents. They give a certain image to the page, while the main focus is on the content.

Portfolio

As I already wrote, minimalism is great for presenting your work - nothing will simply distract from them!

Such a simple design, the logo, the main photo and the welcome inscription are highlighted on the page.

Gray with red-blue splash design, accents, again, look like a photo and logo.

The creators of this page have identified areas of their activity.

Soft creamy design. The focus is back on the photo.

There are almost no pictures, but the red logo stands out - the brightest spot on the page.

Here, in general, everything is very, very small, indeed, nothing superfluous.

A glamorous combination of black and pink, plus a large photo, set the character of the site.

On this page, the company immediately exposes the work from the portfolio, presenting the level of their work.

Corporate websites

Minimalism in the design of their corporate website is chosen by companies that want to emphasize the principle of work: "Business comes first."

The company clearly decided to focus on three menu items.

The stylish graphic below shows the profile of the company.

This website highlights the slogan and services of the company.

Another example of a site where the center of the composition is a photo.

On this page, only the main menu of the company's website is presented from the text.

Logo, price and a short story about the product - there is nothing else on the page.

D&AD

Apple

Classics of the genre) Menu, a few words about the product and the product itself.

SOFA

Again, all attention is focused on the company's products.

Social networks

A classic example, and trendsetter is facebook.

Linkedin also chooses a minimal design, although the page even has a banner.

One of the new social networks for designers, everything is simple and neat. Although, I suppose, the profile of the network still obliged the creators to embellish it a little.