Last Updated on February 4, 2019 by WebsiteDesigner.sg

If you are a web designer, chances are that you have already come across the term minimalist design. Any website is designed with text bodies, images, videos, and widgets etc. To define minimalist design, it is using few of all these design elements to convey the message to the viewers/readers. In short, you exclude the unnecessary usage of the elements to make the design appear professional and neat. Some web designers use bold design, while some opt for minimalist; however, recent trends show that minimalist designs are becoming popular when it comes to web design.  Let’s take a look at both types of design in brief.

Minimalist vs. Maximalist design:

  • If you are looking for a neat and focused design, minimalist should be your first choice. When designing a website with minimalist design, pinpoint the focal point, as that’s where the viewers will focus first when they visit the website. If this is absent, the viewer will get confused and lose the interest in browsing the website further. The website should be designed as such that the viewer doesn’t spend more than 5 seconds to understand what the website is about.  Designers are trying to find new ways to reduce the time it takes for the website to create an effective impression on the viewers. This is why defining a strong focal point is important. This will help you to show the important information first to the viewers and gradually create an information hierarchy. Minimalist design also helps the viewers to be in control. The more control the viewers have the better the user experience. In minimalist web design, whitespace also carries importance as it helps to define the point of focus for viewers. It will also help the web pages to become easily readable. Minimalism doesn’t mean that the website isn’t interesting at all. There are various ways through which you can easily make the website to be interactive and interesting. There are various advantages of minimalist web design, such as it is easy to navigate and use, web pages load fast and reduces the rate of web bounce, etc.
  • If you are more into using maximalist design to create an impact and make the website to stand out, you can do so, without making the website appear too simple or excessively loud. Unlike minimalist design, here you get to use every inch of the web page with a variety of content. It can be quite tricky to design a website with maximalist design as one may get carried away easily when designing and end up cluttering the web pages. If you prefer maximalist design, you should be aware of what elements you need to allow the web page to convey the message to the viewers. Even for maximalist design, you can create an amazing design on every inch of the web page, without going overboard and making it appear visually aesthetic to the viewers.

When designing a website, it’s best to rely on creativity and own choice, rather than blindly following any specific rules or trends. When you bind creativity with rules and trends, it will become difficult to get expressed in the way it actually should.