The importance of web design in the success of a website can never be overstated. Other factors, such as search engine optimization, also play a massive role in ensuring this success. However, web design accounts for most of the traffic and positive reviews. What a visitor sees on your pages website when they first open them can determine whether they stay or leave the site entirely. Not only does a stellar web design make you look professional, but it also gives you an ambiance of class and credibility. A beautifully designed website will make visitors want to read your content while a plain one will most likely bore them.
Minimalist web design builds on the idea that a website should explicitly stick to the critical elements, and leave out those that are surplus to requirements. Minimalist web designs draw the attention of the visitor to your essential content without compromising the site’s beauty. Traditional web designs made sites so flashy and crowded that they compromised their functionality and appeal. To get the best out of your website, you need to know how you can boost the conversion rates with minimalist web design. Knowing what a minimalist site entails, allow us to take you through ways in which you can get the best out of it.
Make Your Site All About Your Brand
Think of any popular website: there are significant elements about the site that you now associate with the brand. The first few seconds are enough to make an impression to your visitor, which in turn determines if you turn them into customers or not. In the spirit of minimalism, make sure that your homepage only has vital aspects of your site and identity, such as your logo. Don’t bombard your visitor with too much information concerning your website at this point. Limit the contents of other pages to the critical stuff also.
Make sure that the first sight of your pages communicates what your brand is all about. This way, you create a bond between your brand and the visitor. You should roll out other elements such as calls-to-action gradually in other pages as you have already established a positive rapport with the user. Having all the aspects clustered together makes your site lose its appeal and tarnishes your image.
Make Your Site Navigable
Whatever metric you use for conversion, you need your site to be easily navigable so that your users can get to the vital content seamlessly. Customers love a website that is easy to navigate. You might have fantastic content but fail to capitalize on it if it is difficult to reach. Navigability is one of the fundamental aims of a minimalist design.
For exceptional navigability, you need to get rid of the unnecessary elements. However, beware of eliminating too many aspects to the extent of rendering many of them unreachable. If, for example, you have an eCommerce functionality in your shop, your items on sale and buying options should be quick to access. Therefore, navigation options should be clear, and excess details shouldn’t surround the main features, such as CTAs.
Use Commanding Visuals for Your Crucial Messages
Few things are as vital as visuals when it comes to excellent web design. If you are to communicate anything, your visuals should catch the attention of the audience and give you the chance to put your message across. When you post textual content that is supposed to communicate a message to your visitors quickly, use typography that calls attention to itself. First, ensure that such text is in bold. Make sure that the color of the text, and that of the background, are appealing without looking exceedingly flashy. This balance will not only catch the attention of the visitors, but it will also impress them.
Another aspect of typography is the font style. Ensure that you have as many font styles at your disposal as possible. A change in font catches the attention of the casual passerby. What’s more, having many font options allows you to have readable content always. You can’t overstate the importance of high readability in your web design. Visitors who can’t read your content are bound to get frustrated and leave your site. Great typography makes you appear creative and exciting.
Be Shrewd in Picture Selection
Pictures are one of the aspects that make a website lovable. This fact doesn’t imply that you should riddle your website with myriads of pictures. When it comes to images on your website, you need to understand that using too many of them will slow your site down. Nonetheless, there are practices that you can use to counter this, such as lazy loading and image optimization.
In minimalist web design, you are supposed to stick to a few images while balancing their function and dominance. Don’t use pictures that play little or no role in working towards fulfilling your goals. Make sure that your photos communicate more than words alone could. Images should complement the content of the page they occur in, and pass on messages as explicitly as possible.
Also, make your images dominant enough to grab attention and transmit your message. It is advisable to use a few but large photos. Always ensure that your pictures are of high quality. Image quality has a significant implication on the image of your brand. Finally, make sure that you select strategic places to put the photos. Don’t place the pictures on areas that make them look out of context.
Employ Negative Space
Negative space is the space that separates elements on your pages. This space makes your content navigable and readable. Always have space between your paragraphs, words, lines of text, header and content, footer and content, and between every other element. This space makes it easy to read your content – therefore, helping your popularity.
In places such as the homepages, negative space makes sure that the important stuff, such as calls-to-action stand out.
Use Color Wisely
Not only does color help develop your brand, but it also plays several other roles on your minimalist website. Colors have a high impact on the emotions of a visitor. The color combinations on a website set its mood, and the users react to it. The purpose of your website should go along with the color. If your site is too bland, you’re sure to experience low conversion rates.
For instance, if the website is selling stuff over the Valentine’s holiday, your general color should be red. Using combinations of other colors such as black and blue may fail to evoke the emotions that would inspire premeditated and impulse buying.
To make sure that color isn’t your enemy, make sure that you use contrast so that your elements such as call-to-action and social share buttons stand out. Make sure that they are in a color that doesn’t get obscured by the background and doesn’t look like anything else on the page. For example, if a page is composed of shades of red and white, a black CTA button would be perfect.
Final Thoughts
Minimalist websites became popular a few years back and have proven to be a reliable option. Minimalism is all about keeping it simple. Hick’s Law suggests that; since more options prolong the decision-making process, the action is lost. If you include too many elements on your website, you will compromise the conversion rates of your website by affecting the decision making of your visitors.
This piece about how you can boost conversions with minimalist web design is all the help you need to make the website of your dreams. Use the tips we have outlined for you herein to create the ideal minimalist website. If you encounter problems creating an excellent minimalist website, you can opt to try minimalist themes. They come with incredible templates, which you can import, make a few tweaks, and get an unbelievable website.
