The move to minimalist web design
Website styles and trends come and go. Not so long back it was en vogue to have a ‘busy’ website.
You know the ones I mean – overzealous with graphics, animation and always literally bulging at the seams with text content. It was if the website owner wanted to shoehorn in as much information as they could, and didn’t give a damn about a visitor’s experience. You still stumble across those ‘busy’ websites today, and I’m sure like me, wonder why on earth people bother to stay and browse.
Today, it seems time really is of the essence for most people using the Internet. People expect websites to quickly and easily provide them with the information that they seek. And if a website doesn’t, well they’ll move on to another website that does. The World Wide Web can be very harsh place for businesses, unless their websites have been designed specifically with the end user in mind.
To improve end user experience, many businesses are now choosing to have an extremely simple website design for their websites. This is often referred to as minimalist website design. With minimalist web design ‘less is more’. Having less clutter to wade through with your eyes is often a great relief for website visitors.
Minimalist web design can be very effective in guiding the focus of visitors. It often does this by using a lot of whitespace which helps define a focal point. Whitespace does not distract the visitor’s attention from ‘what to do next’ on the website. The choice of ‘what to do next’ will be made plain and obvious to the visitor, who will then feel comfortable and in control.
Minimalist website design can be a very effective tool when employed in e-commerce web design. Visitors can be quickly and seamlessly directed to the choices of what products are available. Use of whitespace will also help visitors to focus their attention on product images and details. Navigating round the website will be made to be smooth, hassle free and enjoyable. All of this adding to a great shopping experience!
