Minimalism in UI Design

By Himanish Mandrekar

In today’s day and age we are surrounded by technology to the point that it has become completely omnipresent. We mindlessly scroll away hours of our time on social media and chat apps. According to a research done by us, it was found that on average:

• Every 6 minutes or less, people check their email and chat.
• Every day, they use 56+ apps and tools and switch between them around 300 times.
• On average, people spend 4.5 hours on their phones.
• They multitask for at least 40% of our waking hours.

With the increase in sales of smartphones and laptops, there has been a rapid growth in the application market. It has reached to such a point that there are over 100 apps that do the same job. With such fierce competition it is extremely difficult to stand out from the crowd. In today’s world functionality of an app or website is only as good as its User Interface. Even if the software is capable of delivering what it promises it is not preferred by consumers if it isn’t easy to use and visually pleasing. Where most developers try to highlight and cram as many features as possible, it actually works against them as the users generally get overwhelmed by such software when they see it for the first time.

By borrowing a few principles of Minimalism and incorporating it into our UI/UX design language, we can easily grab the attention of the users. Minimalism in UI sounds like a user-friendly trend. When used correctly, it allows users to view the interface’s main parts and makes the user experience intuitive and purposeful. Furthermore, minimalist interfaces tend to appear elegant and clean, making aesthetic satisfaction one of the elements of desirability in UX.

Minimalism is currently one of the most popular design trends for websites and mobile applications. The following practises can be used to describe the essential elements to consider.

• Flat Design

Using a 2D approach while designing UI instead of a 3D and skeuomorphic approach look neater and consistent. This is why most of the companies started removing realistic looking elements from their Operating System which give it a leaner look.

• Monochrome/ Limited Color Palette

Minimalist color selections emphasize the chosen colors while not overwhelming consumers with too much diversity. Such an approach is effective in interfaces that focus users’ attention on certain actions such as purchasing, subscribing, contributing,etc. Furthermore, from a psychological standpoint, colors typically convey specific associations and emotions to users, thus a limited palette makes the chosen colors stronger in this regard.

• Bold Typography

Typography is one of the most important visual aspects in minimalistic design, since it not only informs users about the content but also sets the tone and improves visual performance. When it comes to choosing the best approach to employ graphics in a concise manner, designers usually focus on typography and never rush through the process of experimenting with different pairs, sizes, and combinations.

• Limiting Choice Options

One of the benefits of minimalism in user interfaces is that it improves user concentration. Because these pages and screens are focused on functionality and simplicity, they don’t usually overwhelm users’ attention with decorative elements, shades, colors, details, or motion, resulting in a high attention ratio and allowing users to quickly solve problems and navigate through the website or app.

• Intuitive navigation

Navigation in minimalist interfaces introduces a new challenge: designers must carefully evaluate items in order to display just the most important ones. There are a variety of strategies for hiding the navigation, but it’s critical to guarantee that users can simply discover what they need. One of the reasons why the minimalist approach has been criticized is that, if not presented effectively and well tested, solutions such as hamburger menus and concealed layout features might lead to some visitors being disoriented when navigating the website.

• Negative space

In digital design, empty space (also known as negative space) is a word that refers to space rather than color. It’s another great technique to create elegance and distinguish the key parts in minimalism. Negative space also helps to create appropriate contrast and support intelligibility when using a monochromatic or limited color palette.

• Contrast

Minimalism relies heavily on contrast as a technique for strong visual performance, as it adheres to the principle of limitations and simplicity. Contrast is frequently used as a guiding principle in the selection of colors, shapes, and location.

Implementing these design principles while creating a user interface leads to a result which is not only clean and aesthetically pleasing but also helps with retaining attention of the user as it doesn’t make the user make a lot of decisions and isn’t bombarded with a lot of visual elements. When used correctly, these principles of minimalism can create distinguishable and desirable user interfaces and experiences.