Minimalism has been a staple in web design for long enough that we, the web design community, should really stop calling it a trend. Every year website design blogs pump out listicles saying that the previous year was all about minimalism in design. There is a reason for that, minimalism is all about presenting information in a simple direct way – A.K.A the way people want to absorb their information. Call it what you will, minimalist, clean, open… minimalism in web design has been popular the world over and Calgary is no exception.
With a minimalist design the focus is on the content which is a bit of a double edged sword. If your website is going to focus on the content, then your content had better be damn good.
Minimalism in web design (and art) is characterized by large blank spaces (negative space), not as much content and a confined colour palette. If you were designing a minimalist website less is more would be your mantra.
One of the reasons that minimalism in web design works is because it forces you to find your core theme. Content is king and not because there is an abundance of it. If the purpose of the website isn’t well thought out and the content isn’t pointed and polished it won’t work. If it isn’t deliberate, need to know or mission enhancing it doesn’t go on the page. This helps to market your message because it doesn’t confuse your brand or your audience in any way.
With a minimalist design a webpage is more likely to have a higher conversion rate. Rocket science? Nope. Take Google for example. When you go to the search giant’s webpage do you have to take more than 2 seconds to find the search button? Nope. There it is plain as day. The easier it is for people to take your desired action, the more people will do it and your conversion rate will go up. Clean design + plain as day action = desired conversion rate.
If you have taken a minimalist approach to the entire website, doing it only half way would be weird, than your menu bar should be clutter free and easy to move through. If the end user wants to learn more about you they shouldn’t have to wade through a 10-option sea to find the about us section. The easier it is for someone to move through your entire website and that equals a long session length. Long session rates look really sexy in an analytics report. Longer session rate = better impressions = better brand awareness.
Speaking of brand awareness, if you want people to think of your brand as: clean, elegant, crisp, artistic or sophisticated a minimalist web design strategy is probably the road you should go down. Businesses in Calgary have actually been fairly early adopters of the minimalist web design train. Some of our Calgary web design work has some great examples of minimalist web design action.
Happy minimal times!
