To be or not to be: Minimalist

Continuing along my series on minimalism, I decided to discuss the pros and cons of a minimalist design. The arguments for both sides are valid, however, personally I lean a bit more to the “minimalism is good” side of the argument.

What is minimalism?

Minimalist design is, in short, design that has only the needed elements. In other words, minimalist design is a design that has been simplified down until it has only exactly what it needs for usability and nothing else for extra style or flare.

Although this may seem like a lousy excuse for being lazy, it is not. Minimalist design, just like any other form of design, covers certain principles and elements of design. Space (particularly negative space), balance, emphasis and contrast are all used in minimalist design.

To be minimalist

Yes, I will admit, there are many designs out there that fail to heed the necessity of the elements and principles of design, leaving their minimalist design to be simply whitespace. White space when used properly can look nice, however misusing it proves to be a critical mistake of many designs.

My arguments for minimalism start off by proving minimalism is a proper form of design. As I mentioned, minimalism follows the principles and elements of design. Following the elements and principles is difficult, but using them correctly will always produce a usable and effective design.

Because minimalism discards value, form and texture, by definition, some designers disagree and refuse to accept it as a legitimate form of design. However, just as often, plenty of web designs ignore those very same elements, and most of those who do, leave out another element, such as negative space. The same theory applies to the principles of design.

True, designs do look good without minimalism; they use other elements and principles to make their designs look good, however, because one designer uses only certain elements, that does not make the other elements inferior. Just as Romanticism was a different style of art, minimalism is a different style of design.

With minimalism as a proven legitimate form of design, I will move on.

”Less is more”
Slapping down stock pictures of animals or stereo systems with a vintage or grunge texture does not instantaneously improve a design. Use the elements you already have; only the elements you need. Then play around with alignment, contrast, proximity and emphasis, and then you will have a design better than that with someone’s attempts to make a design seem less empty.

Often times, designers ignore white space and fail to realize it is a separate element of its own. Minimalism discards useless elements, and brings emphasis to the white space of a design.

The color scheme is also problematic. To look good, a design does not need to have the entire color spectrum on it. A design can look fine by using shades of gray, along with color.

Finally, the Internet was designed for minimalism. Designers are discouraged from using fancy and over zealous graphics on their website, as it increases loading time. By simplifying them down to the bare needs, loading time is fully optimized. In other words, minimalism is optimization.

When designers attempt to use bold illustrations, the massive file size often deters possible readers. The readers also look for a design that is easy to read, rather that one where it is difficult to separate design from text.

Another reason why the Internet was designed for minimalism is that usability is a key feature of both the Internet and minimalism. Other extravagant designs forget this, and have a design that is impossible to use.

In short, minimalism is designed for the audience. Since it is the audience who the designer is trying to please, minimalism is for the designer too.

Now I will write the counter perspective to this.

Not to be minimalist

Minimalism is boring. It is simple and fails to provide any lasting impression in the readers mind. As important as usability is, minimalism strips off all the necessary visual appeal leaving it with only the cold and harsh inner shell of a design.

Starting off with the color scheme. Minimalist designs refuse to incorporate more than, at most, a few colors, leaving a very bland and simple page. Often times the colors are muted, or do not stand out from the background, making it difficult to distinguish design from white space, or content.

Next, there is the text. Minimalist designs tend to be highly text based. While this is great for usability, nothing distinguishes one page of text from the next. The layouts may vary, however, the overall effect is never changed; it is always white space and text.

Yes, hierarchy variations and different emphasis may ease the reader’s eyes, as they flow across the content, however these hierarchy effects can be easily mimicked in a proper design.

Minimalist designs also lack visual appeal. Yes, your eyes will flow across an article, however, nothing in the design makes you want to continue looking or even return to that design. Minimalism often lacks graphics and illustrations that would provide for something memorable, or something that would make the audience look twice at the design.

Another reason why minimalism is inferior to other forms of design, is that it takes little skill. All one needs to do to make a fully functioning minimalist design, is to change a few typographical elements along with the layout.

The elements and principles of design minimalism uses are easy to learn. What’s more is since minimalism is, by definition, only the bare necessities, learning them takes little time, and then another person would be right up and set to make another minimalist design to add to the horrendous pile of unrecognizable designs.

More is more for a reason. When you add a neat graphic to a page, or add a unique illustration, it changes the page, making the design better. No one wants to be just reading line after line of text. It gets tiring, and it is nice to have something else to look at when you have a break.

Finally, by definition, good design is usable. Saying that minimalism is better than other design styles because it is more usable is not necessarily true. Good designs are supposed to be visually appealing, and be usable, not just usable.

In conclusion, minimalism is inferior to other forms of design because it fails to incorporate visual appeal, making it lose its memorability, and while it is said to be more usable and for the audience, that is not always true.

Well, those are my arguments for both sides of minimalism. Be sure to drop a comment with your perspective.

Other articles in the minimalist design series

40+ Minimalist Web Designs