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Minimalist Web Design: Top 6 Principles To Follow

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Minimalist web design which is also known as stripped of web design is a popular design convention popular for its simplicity and ease of engagement&period; While less is more for almost every new app or website design&comma; the principle is still ill conceived and least understood by the majority of designers&period; Stripping all unnecessary elements does not the only amount to an effective minimalist design&comma; one needs to ensure usability and engagement as well&period; So&comma; do you want to know the key principles that make minimalist design attractive and eye catchy&quest; Well&comma; here they are&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<h2><strong> Negative or white space<&sol;strong><strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Just browse through most popular and famous websites across the niches and you are bound to realise that lot of vacant or negative space is a creative ingredient in the majority of them&period; Yes&comma; for some time now use of white or negative space has become a key web design principle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The role of white or negative space around the visual objects is to grab the user attention and help it stay focused without any distraction&period; White is the most popular background colour which is used as negative space&comma; though with contextual and appealing use other colours including dark backgrounds can create the same sense of harmony&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Apart from guiding the user&&num;8217&semi;s attention and visual trajectory&comma; negative space also helps to organise the on-page elements in a neat and visually appealing way&period; A website with more negative space around looks more organised and neat and thus it helps users navigating through the pages or buttons to get their required contents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Negative space serves to manipulate the user’s visual flow&period; As a rule&comma; the more negative space around an element&comma; the more the eye is drawn to it – you can see how this is a powerful tool in a minimalist layout when you’re down to only a few&comma; but powerful elements&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Finally&comma; negative space helps to prioritise elements by organising contents and on-page elements as per the visual flow&period; For instance&comma; if you want to make a featured area to showcase latest arrivals or latest contents you need to create a sense of priority by allowing more space and a sense of distance from the rest of the page elements&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Let us now summarise the key points to consider when utilising negative space&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&NewLine;<li>White is naturally the most useful background&period; But in case you opt for other colours and darker shades&comma; make sure it looks appealing and does not compromise with the usability&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Divide space proportionately to avoid looking like spam&period; It should not look like a vacant web page with bits and pieces of colourful elements here and there&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Always focus on prioritising one content or one on-page element over another and accordingly provide space for them&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Make sure the negative space does not make it look too glaring for the eyes&period; It happens especially when you use the darker background&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Make sure negative space around CTA buttons and clickable links make them look more inviting and eye catchy&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<ol style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;" start&equals;"2">&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<h2><strong> Make sure you wireframe the design <&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">How is a stunning website designed with the beautiful use of colours and contrast&comma; space division that subtly guides user attention and engages users with appealing layouts and shapes&quest; Well&comma; most such websites follow the principle of wireframing&period; Creating a unique wireframe is the most important step for ensuring an interesting design&period; Let me tell you&comma; creating a unique wireframe requires a lot of attention&period; You cannot come with such a wireframe accidentally and this is why we advise you to follow these steps&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&NewLine;<li>First of all&comma; just make a priority list of most elementary content for your website and<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Now&comma; just sketch out some lucrative wireframes on the basis of your list and then compare the visual hierarchy that works in each of them&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Besides considering the importance of placing a priority content also make sure the whole thing looks appealing visually&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Now&comma; consider the brand aspect in all design elements of the decided wireframe&period;<strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<ol style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;" start&equals;"3">&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<h2><strong> Give priority to usability<&sol;strong><strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">More than the so called visual flair what matters most in website design is usability&period; In fact&comma; the biggest draw of minimalist design is the stripped of focus towards ease of use for the users&period; While you have a minimum number of on-page elements your site can be easier to use and features and contents can be easier to access&period; But that is not always the case with many websites designed with minimalist principle&period; Even within minimalist designed websites&comma; there are many that have serious flaws in respect of usability&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Then there is intuitive design&comma; another popular design principle to make things simpler and engaging for the users&period; Intuitive elements coupled up with minimalist design elements can work wonder to ensure usability&period; Just when the user takes cursor or finger over buttons and icons&comma; some actions can be suggested contextually&period; Similarly&comma; upon onboarding&comma; a user can be guided with a layer of messages about how the site works and where to go for his desired contents&period; Hovering effect on navigation buttons is another impressive way to make things easier to click and find&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;" start&equals;"4">&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<h2><strong> Robust and beautiful pictures<&sol;strong><strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Do you think minimalist design lacks emotion and warmth&quest; Maybe&comma; you have such an impression seeing stripped off websites with too less to show&period; But&comma; the absence of visual appeal is a design flaw rather than a shortcoming of the minimalist approach&period; Besides other subtle elements&comma; in minimalist design large and beautiful images can really play a great role&period; Large and appealing pics add some emotional and familiar touches to the site without really causing any distraction&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Now&comma; just like elsewhere in minimalist design also hero header and hero images fit nicely leaving a visual mark on the otherwise clean and clutter free design of the rest of the website&period; Hero images which allow placing an image or an entire slider just close to the top of the scroll can give your site a really dramatic exuberance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Now&comma; let us come to the question of choosing your image&period; Can you use just any image that can fit into other types of websites with a different design approach&quest; Presumably no&comma; because the image should also carry the minimalist elements keeping in sync with the overall design&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t deck your photos with too many distracting elements&period; Rather choose an image with key meaning conveyed easily and without much fuss&period; Let&&num;8217&semi;s face it&comma; a design approach should be consistent in all elements and so it should be visible in images as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;" start&equals;"5">&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<h2><strong> Easy navigation<&sol;strong><strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The navigation of a website holds the quintessential principles of a design and it plays a big role in the overall outcome of the website design&period; As far as minimalist web design is concerned&comma; the navigation deserves to be simple and easily accessible&period; The flat web design which remains to be popular as a subversion of minimalist design&comma; always makes simple navigation menu buttons look befitting and organically united&period; A complex menu breaking further into sub menu buttons is utterly foreign in this design&period; The most complex menu that you can use is a drop-down without a submenu&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">A horizontal top level menu is the most common and simple navigation with few less important statutory links provided down below in the footer&period; For a better creative ease&comma; you can use also a hamburger menu&period; Hamburger sign is pretty well known now thanks to widespread use of this navigation principle&period; Moreover&comma; with a hamburger menu&comma; you can clear the entire clutter of menu links in one area while making it always accessible just on the top right&period; Most important of all&comma; a hamburger menu works great across all devices saving a lot of screen real estate&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;" start&equals;"6">&NewLine;<li>&NewLine;<h2><strong> Beautiful typeface<&sol;strong><strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You may try to cut off on all fronts when venturing minimalist design but the least you can do is with the words on your pages&period; Yes&comma; you guessed it right&period; We are talking about the typeface&period; The typeface is the new kid in the design world to enjoy utmost attention and priority from all corners&period; Most modern typeface typically looks slim&comma; stylish yet least distracting&period; Just look at the innovative typeface called San Francisco created by Apple and how it fits into the minimalist&comma; elegant and sophisticated design scheme of all Apple websites and other iOS interfaces&period; Typically a typeface instead of telling &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;look at me” should say &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;look at this” referring to the content and make readability easier&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">But beautiful typeface also has to be custom fit at times&period; Your brand image may require a twist in typeface to create a distinct identity in design&period; Well&comma; when rolling out a custom typeface just do not miss the basic principle referred above&period; Instead of being too rocking to soak all the attention it should actually remain silent but effective for easy reading and usability&period; Lastly&comma; avoid any typeface that seems to be heavy and cluttered on the screen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>To conclude&comma;<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">So&comma; here we are at the fag end of our exploration on minimalist web design&period; Actually&comma; minimalist design is all about making less fuss about design while making the web design more effective and result driving&period; So&comma; just without any extra effort try to fine tune your design with the above-mentioned principles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>Author bio<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Darshan Patel is a Lead Search Engine Analyst &amp&semi; Storyteller at Nimblechapps&comma; a prominent website development company based in India&period; He believes in using a variety of strategy to create business’s online presence that delight and deliver&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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