What is Minimalism?
Table of Contents
Users Embracing Design “Cleanliness”
While minimalism in web design has been out and about for some time, only recently has this design approach truly began to gain traction. With the steady rise of websites embracing this simplistic design philosophy, users also reap the benefits as a result. To better understand how, let’s dive into how minimalism affects our daily web browsing ritual from a visual and mental point of view.
#1: Patience Doesn’t Have to Be a Virtue
A reduction in elements, particularly those deemed unnecessary or complex, and using simple elements can improve website loading times and responsiveness. This also contributes to a higher rate of users staying on the site, as people demand near instantaneous responses from websites in a fast-paced world. As modern society’s attention span have become low, all it takes is only a moment before an average user gives up and moves on to another website.
A study by Google shows that 53% of mobile users will leave the website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load, emphasizing the need to design simpler websites to improve load times and overall responsiveness.(1)
#2: Keeping Our Mental Processors Stable
There’s such thing as too much information. Visually cluttered websites are highly prone to overloading our brains by showing globs of content all at once. While unintentional, this sense of “visual claustrophobia” brings forth a strong sense of feeling overwhelmed and mental strain, as our eyes and mind struggle to process everything that we currently see. In contrast, minimalistic websites are designed to show only the essentials and surrounds them with ample “white void” to further highlight content present on-screen. The abundance of emptiness significantly reduces the chance of sending our mental processor from going into overdrive, allowing us to capture and process information effectively.
A study shows that a visually complex layout such as CNN’s website scored a higher NASA-TLX index (a measure of mental workload on a person) of 33.4, compared to a minimalist prototype of the same website with a NASA-TLX index of 16.9 (nearly half in reduction). A low NASA-TLX index meant that performing a set of tasks weren’t mentally exhaustive, while the opposite holds true for a high NASA-TLX index. In other words, this study shows that visually simple website layouts impose much lower cognitive load on users compared to complex or cluttered layouts.(2)
#3: Clean Aesthetics & Design Create Professionalism & Positivity
By having only the essentials shown such as navigation menus and important information, content is presented in a clean, direct, and professional way, with users perceiving a website as modern and visually pleasing. From a psychological point of view, a visually pleasing website contributes to an increase of positive emotional responses. As a result, users can enjoy a seamless and emotionally pleasant experience browsing a website.
Statistics show that 84.6% of people favor simplicity over complexity when it comes to how websites and their content should be laid out, preferring a cleaner and visually pleasing design aesthetic rather than a cluttered approach. Meanwhile, Generation Z users favor minimalist design traits such as having white/empty space, neutral colors, and straightforward typography. A clean, simple, and emotionally engaging design on websites are also preferred by Gen Z.(3)
Participants in a study reported high satisfaction scores for websites with minimalist designs (4.3 out of 5), perceiving them as clean, easy to navigate, and visually appealing. Minimalist color palettes involving one or two dominant colors contributed feelings of calmness and clarity, influencing the participants’ perception of website usability.(4)
#4: Minimalism Works Well on Any Canvas
Having limited content on-screen also means making efficient use of space available, especially on mobile devices where the canvas (visual space) becomes space-restricted. Well designed minimal layouts and visual aesthetics are defined by their ability to adapt to any form factor of any device. In a world where the majority of users are using mobile devices such as phones and tablets with small form factors, maximizing utilization of the limited canvas given has taken precedence.
In 2022, 59.16% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices. Because users want a seamless experience when browsing the web on their phones and tablets, being able to design a website suitable for any device on any form factor is essential to effectively cater to that demographic.(5)