Minimalist Design: Dos & Don’ts

Last Updated on September 16, 2022 by 10 Comments

Minimalist Design: Dos & Don’ts
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Hereโ€™s the thing that about minimalist design: when you do it well, itโ€™s absolutely beautiful. When you do it wrong, itโ€™s hideous for the exact same reasons. Getting it right is a balancing act, really, of just a handful of design elements.

Like a lot of art and design, it can take a pretty keen eye to tell the difference between something that will just work and something that just does not.

And itโ€™s those things that just donโ€™t work you want to avoid in your web design. If youโ€™re working toward minimalism and you want your site to elicit an ooh from visitors instead of an eww, Iโ€™ve got you covered with a whole lot of what you should do (and a whole lot of what you shouldnโ€™t).

Do: Use Color!

People tend to think that minimalist design is monochromatic, or even worseโ€”black-and-white and/or greyscale.

No no no. No.

Minimalist design is not, almost paradoxically, about having very little; itโ€™s about maximizing very little. Your intent should be to make the most you can out of what little youโ€™ve got.

That means when it comes to colors, you shouldโ€ฆuse color. Take a look at this example from Epoch Design:

Minimalist Design

The use of color here is minimal, but the designer has maximized its use to make sure you see it.

And here, from Boorbool:

Minimalist Design

The duotone background striking and memorable, but doesnโ€™t slap you in the face.

Donโ€™t: Use ALL the Color!

On the other side of those delightful designs, minimalists harbor a lot of dark impulses to use all the colors, only replacing the cleanness of their designs with pretty much every shade on the spectrum.

Okay, so maybe itโ€™s not that bad, but the overuse of color with other minimalist aesthetics can be incredibly distracting and self-defeating.

Such as Rogue + Co. They try to use minimalismโ€™s clean lines and asymmetrical card sizes to draw the userโ€™s attention. But they added superfluous colors to everything, and then animated it for no reason. It draws the user away from the content, rather than drawing them in.

The opposite of minimalist design, that is.

Minimalist Design

And then thereโ€™s Bolden, who totally understand minimalism. Except for the color thing. Too many colors and trying to be too clever made them have to add in superfluous animation. You have to mouse over the corners of the screen to see the text.

Thatโ€™s just not minimal, now is it?

Minimalist Design

Do: Use Animation

You see, those animations aboveโ€ฆthey donโ€™t matter. They donโ€™t add anything to the website. But cinema graphs like Rogue & Co use can work; they just need to enhance the site, not clutter it.

For the most part, micro interactions will workโ€”a hover on a button or an highlighted emphasis on a card. Even loading, scrolling, or background animations that arenโ€™t obtrusive can enhance the minimalist design youโ€™re going for.

The biggest hurdle is making sure the animation fits your design. Donโ€™t just add them where they donโ€™t belong. See how the footer expanding on our Divi page draws your attention as you scroll, but doesnโ€™t detract from how you use the page.

Minimalist Design

Not surprisingly, Divi has a built-in feature to accomplish these kinds of micro interactions.

Do: Use Whitespace

Like pops of color, whitespace (or negative space) can be one of the most useful weapons in your arsenal. For instance, the absurdly popular Medium is almost all whitespace, and it works.

Minimalist Design

And see how the only color is used to draw your attention to the buttons and links you absolutely need?

Thereโ€™s a balance to using whitespace effectively. You want to balance readability and utility with aesthetic appeal. When used effectively, whitespace is unbelievably powerful in making your minimalist design memorable. cough Google cough cough

Minimalist Design

Donโ€™t: Use ONLY Whitespace

On the opposite end of the spectrum, overusing whitespace makes using your site nearly unusable to visitors. You see, Googleโ€™s use of whitespace highlights how they want you to use the site: type something in the box.

If, however, your use of whitespace doesnโ€™t either does not direct the user to your siteโ€™s purpose or make them have a better experience on your site, you might need more explicit elements to direct them.

For instance, Thru You Too is an awesome project. But it took me a long time to figure out how to use it (you have to hover on the big text in the center, which I didnโ€™t do because I wa drawn to the upper right corner). While the navigation is simple when you get it, the whitespace didnโ€™t direct me there.

Minimalist Design

Do: Use Appropriately Awesome Fonts

One thing that pretty much all minimalist design relies on is effective use of fonts. Picking the right typeface for your site is how you show your personality and that of your product or company.

So you want a font that oozes your brand identity from the moment folks see it. Clean lines with sleek lettering. Rough edges and maybe some brush strokes. Elegant and classy. Whatever youโ€™re going for, make sure you pick a font to match.

Minimalist Design

Look at Squarespace for instance. You know exactly what to expect out of their company by simply looking at the signup form and the fonts used. Clean, simple, and clear. It exudes the sleekness they advertise, primarily through the font they chose. (Because thatโ€™s really the only design element you can see here.)

Minimalist Design

And the folks at Folks are going for a folksy feel, so they definitely found a font that feels fine. Their audience is apparent, as is their take on their products. And it isnโ€™t explicitly stated.

Donโ€™t use INAPPROPRIATELY Awesome Fonts

On the opposite end of that spectrum, choosing a font that is too bold can pack the wrong kind of wallop. Everyone wants their site be unique and to stand out. But you donโ€™t want it to stand out for the wrong reasons.

Imagine looking for a crisis line to help a family member in need and finding a site that looked like this:

Minimalist Design

What about a doctor who wanted to make sure you knew she was the best choice to save your life?

Minimalist Design

Or if you were looking for a fantastic, contemporary web designer and all you saw was this:

Minimalist Design

Okay, so I couldnโ€™t resist a Comic Sans dig. Sue me. But you get my point: font choice matters. Especially when youโ€™re using a minimalist design because the your choice of typeface might be the biggest part of the design.

Go Forth and Minimize!

And minify, too, but thatโ€™s a totally different article. #iamadelight

Joking aside, remember that color, typefaces, and negative space are kind of design fundamentals. You just have to practice discretion so that you use them correctly. As long as you do as I say, not what I donโ€™t when it comes to minimalist design, you shouldnโ€™t have anything to worry about.

What are your guidelines when youโ€™re designing minimalist sites?

Article thumbnail by Boo-Tique / shutterstock.com

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10 Comments

  1. That comic sans for the designer choice made my day ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. Great article but jeez – don’t you have editors to fix all of the grammar mistakes?

  3. Speal chek failure: “…because I wa drawn to”

  4. I have a one page site that I like. I’ve been told that one page sites won’t rank good (at all) for SEO. If I use a menu to jump to the sections does that help?

  5. +1, great article. Genuinely helpful info. Shared on my Pinterest board for designers. Thanks, BJ!

  6. What are some great fonts that you all recommend?

  7. This is indeed a GREAT article! Please keep up the astronomically phenomenal quality content! ^^

  8. Very helpful – thank you!

  9. I like to say “less is more, work.”

    Great article.

  10. Bolden’s address is wrong (it’s .nl, not .nk).

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