Minimalism can be best defined as the art of being aware of what is essential and courageous enough to eliminate the rest. Earlier, the term was linked to art, design, and lifestyles; however, its application has extended to UI & UX design. So, let us try to understand minimalism in user interface and user experience design better.
Design is subjective. However, there are certain practices in design that have successfully stood the test of time. Minimalism happens to be one of these. While a considerably large section of designers continues to believe in the effectiveness of bold and flashy elements, the masses are focused on producing and adopting minimalistic designs. Furthermore, several surveys get minimalism in UI UX mobile application design helps improve engagement, accessibility, and usability.
All You Need to Know about Minimalism in UI UX Mobile App Design
When talking about design, minimalism focuses on keeping the most important elements and eliminating unnecessary ones. It is an elegant form of visual design that eliminates clutter and captures the user’s attention. Removing unnecessary content from an application or a website enhances a user’s overall experience, as accessing important components on the platform becomes easier.
When you want to design a minimalistic UI or UX for a mobile application, you need to ensure that it ticks off the following columns:
- Clear
- Simple
- Expressive
- Proportionate
- High element functionality
- Proper use of white and negative space
Benefits of Using Minimalism in User Interface Design
Minimalism has become a vital aspect of good user interface design for all the right reasons. Let’s take a look at the most significant ones.
Easy to Use
Equipped with intuitive user flows and well-mapped user journeys, minimalism in user interface design helps the users get a better hang of your application. When you get rid of elements, such as unwanted CTAs or pop-ups, users are less likely to get confused. In addition, minimalism in design aims at minimizing distraction to make it easy for the user to find the option they are looking for quickly.
Faster Loading
Since the number of elements is reduced considerably in minimalistic user interface and user experience design, these apps and webpages load way faster than the ones with conventional design elements. If you are targeting users who might have devices with slower internet connectivity, you may want to stick to a minimalistic design.
Lesser Maintenance
Fewer components and elements in the user interface also mean easier maintenance. As a result, the chances of downtime decrease significantly, and the maintenance costs are very low even in the long run.
Minimalist UX Design Principles
To create user experiences that are both streamlined and intuitive, there are a few design principles that you should always keep in mind.
Include Formal Visual Elementsino Your Design
If the formal components of your design do not fulfill a function, you might want to rethink it. It needs to be something more than just eye-catching.
Typography
Several developers often use typefaces, such as Helvetica, Univers, and Folio, for websites and app interfaces for clear communication. It would be best if you tried to pick a typeface that is experimental and bold to maximize the impact.
Color
Restricting your color palette is a nice way of including colors in your designs without overpowering the text.
Layout
You could use modular grids, hierarchical grids, and columns to create minimalistic yet appealing user interfaces.
Images
Ensure you are not too pushy with the images because too many images take away the essence of a minimalistic website or mobile application. Also, you must ensure that the images blend well with the general tone of the UI.
Strike a Balance Between Aesthetics & Practicality
Aesthetics are important, sure, but not at the cost of functionality. The speed of digital products can be increased significantly by striking a balance between their design and their purpose. However, utilizing more graphics, animations, or videos than necessary may also slow down your progress. It becomes important to note that a website or a mobile application that loads in one second has a conversion rate that is three times higher than the one that takes longer.
Utilize Negative Space to Your Benefit
‘Negative space is the space that exists between the various elements on a screen. Negative spaces create breathing room and help prevent overwhelming the user with information. It also emphasizes significant aspects of a user experience design, such as calls to action, and directs the reader through the text. Utilizing the negative space effectively contributes to an improved user experience.
Minimum Product Options
Most of us tend to feel overwhelmed when presented with excessive options and information all at once. When you reduce the number of product selections, you help consumers avoid feeling overwhelmed by the available options and desired actions. This often leads to an improved user experience, and a more effective sales funnel for brands.
Minimalism in UI Design
There are a few things that you can do to put minimalism into practice when designing a user interface. Using statement colors, flat interfaces, and straightforward typefaces is an effective way of practicing minimalism. You can also design appealing user interfaces by eliminating extra elements and prioritizing functions.
Final Thoughts
As far as digital design is concerned, change is inevitable. Something trendy today may become obsolete tomorrow. To stay relevant in an extremely competitive market, it becomes important to keep an eye on the latest trends and adopt them as soon as possible. Minimalism in design has been around for a while now, and it is here to stay for one simple reason: it helps users locate what they are looking for effortlessly.
Adhering to minimalism, a UIUX design guarantees less maintenance, decreased cognitive overload, and less loading time, among all the other benefits.
About Author
Prabhjot is a Senior Market Analyst at UIUXDen. He has a huge flare for writing that encourages him to write about current design trends and new technologies. His ability to blend words to convey the most information in the fewest possible terms with impactful, relevant, and practical content for all readers.
