How to make a messy and aggressive web page thin, concise and beautiful, while retaining complete functions and well distinguishing key modules? This is often the source of confusion for designers; how to better eliminate redundant elements, colors, shapes and textures, retain the key points and organize a clear visual flow direction?
If a page has too many elements, users will be confused about where to look or misunderstand the priority of each element. Excellent designers need to use design language to guide the user's visual focus to the correct content. Minimalist web design can bring the most important content to the user and avoid distracting the user's attention. For example, in a black and white design Any color spots on the screen will attract the user's attention, and the color itself will become the focus, which becomes a small topic we are about to discuss.
Product prototype visual transformation
At the beginning of the design, during the transformation process from prototype draft to visual draft, visual designers who are good at graphic recognition are often eager to get started and start creating when faced with complicated and monotonous line draft content, but they neglect the following. Clearly sort out the important links in judging the overall page structure.
Which key modules need to be highlighted, and which secondary modules can be moved to a more optimized layout or streamlined and merged? This is a growth process that requires long-term experience accumulation, continuous training of patience and improvement of understanding and judgment capabilities. It is also the beginning of professionalism.
Tradeoffs in layout and simplified design
Balance, alignment and contrast in typography are crucial to the visual effect of the page. If the picture effect is top-heavy, or uneven from left to right, users will feel a sense of oppression, which will affect the smooth browsing of information.
The first step to achieving a simplified design is not to simply remove most images, but to rethink the content and simplify it to the bare needs. Only then can the most important elements of the page achieve their intended effect.
We can write down the necessary content: logo, introduction, navigation, etc. Work with your product manager to remove any other unnecessary elements and get rid of them as much as possible.
The key here is not to make the site less functional, but to remove unnecessary elements or consolidate multiple sections into a simpler layout. You can also split content into separate pages to give each part of the content more attention.
Make good use of psychological cues of color
Simple and transparent white page
White, with its highest brightness, colorless, bright, clean, cheerful, simple and eternal flawless color, symbolizes the ultimate purity and chastity in nature. White is elegant, peaceful and simple, without a strong personality. Therefore, in website design, white has the image of high-end and technology, and is the main color that will always be popular.
Brisk white can give people a good sense of brisk speed. When used properly, it can make any other light colors and bright colors show differences in depth, brightness and saturation. Through contrast, the bright colors can be made more lively, focused and comfortable. Neat and large white space allows users to maintain a cheerful mood while browsing.
White page design tips:
Make links easier to identify, using light or bright colors;
Reduce cluttered advertising images; don’t use fonts that are too small.
Avoid pages looking frivolous and tired;
Bright text colors make it easier to identify the refined and elegant gray gentleman.
“Gray matter” is associated with IQ and brainpower. It is not as vivid as black, nor as pale as pure white. Gray is the transition between black and white and is the perfect complementary color. Gray can be paired with any color, and due to its neutrality, it is often used as a background color to allow other colors to stand out. Using light gray instead of white or dark gray instead of black can give your web page a distinctive and elegant feel.
Gray is popular both as a background color and as a title or main font color. Gray is also the preferred color for minimalist website design. This type of website usually uses light gray as the background color, and then uses dark gray as the main font color. Here are some great website designs that use gray.
Additive and subtractive philosophy of design
Starting from the first pixel, we began to use addition to create and build a perfect design work. However, is this the ultimate? By using amplification or reduction at the right time in the design, and constantly changing it, you can better move towards minimalism, and repeatedly experience and examine the value of every necessary element.
Whenever this stage is reached, the designer needs to calm down and think. When the addition reaches a certain amount, he will switch to subtractive design. This tests the designer's ability to grasp the overall situation. Subtractive design is a design method that can only be tried when addition is relatively mature. In theory, additive design is relatively easier than subtractive design. Subtractive design can better reflect the designer's skill and accumulation, and the goal is to be less and more refined.
Have the courage to boldly remove the borders to make the picture more transparent and atmospheric. There are not too many visual elements in the space, but it also looks rich and beautiful.
This process of addition and subtraction is the path of experience that makes the design continue to become perfect.
Make the space more breathable
In reducing design complexity through removal and hiding, it is also important to reduce the complexity of "visual perception". White space and contrast have undoubtedly become effective and important methods to reduce visual interference.
Proper white space in visual layout is a necessary balance to balance the small number of elements that are about to appear on the page. It should be your default layout tool. One of the classic rules: don’t place other design elements if you can use white space. If you lay it out in this way, you will be surprised how easy it is to adjust the white space of the interface to complete the layout.
Although using more white space is better, try to ensure a sense of contrast as much as possible. Designers should use minimal visual changes to express ideas. In fact, this means that there must be a sense of priority between elements.
Blank does not mean pale
Page becomes pale? Is it because the text on the entire page lacks the embellishment of pictures? After retaining the necessary white space, try to match the text with an eye-catching picture, or summarize the paragraph text with a small icon. Appropriate embellishment is essential.
Breathable white space does not mean powerless paleness. Let interesting designs boldly stimulate the visual nerves of users, making the design more thoughtful and constantly moving towards simplicity and perfection.