Anyone making websites has to start from somewhere and most of the time that "somewhere" is another website. By taking inspiration, your keystrokes should never come close to Ctrl+C; however, use what you see to create something that you like. Minimalist designs are a new trend - following the Web 2.0 craze - that emphasizes a separation from the cluttered and visually gaudy cliches associated with the typical idea of modern design. The following are 15 great sources of inspiration for creating a cleaner appearance for your site. Each of these websites serves a different purpose to its creator, and the designs you may derive from them will probably express a similar purpose as well.
What it does well:The Sitening website does a good job of utilizing large text and JavaScript tweaks to emphasize certain points of the site to the user, while the smaller text is the detail. The CSS also seperates the various chunks of content into a grid-based layout with two columns and multiple rows in each column. Borders are used to distinguish the various pieces of the grid, and a user can flow straight through the page similar to a comic boook.
What it does well:Swissmiss does a good job of being content-centric. Although the design itself isn't visually spectacular, the emphasis on the content with plenty of deviations on the sidebar is a technique that more websites need to utilize.
What it does well:The page is very small. In fact, there is practically no scrolling required on the front page of this website. Unlike Swissmiss, instead of focusing all on the content in standard reverse-chronological order, the content is segregated into sections that allow the user to chose on the top navigation.
What it does well:Less text. The use of images to show in a portfolio is nothing new, but the grid layout is used exclusively for those images instead of the normal usage of a grid layout - text.
What it does well:Who said minimalism was a lack of color? Finch fuses the ideas of image-heavy design with the concepts of simplicity to create a website that is both content-centric and visually pleasing. What more is there to ask?
What it does well:It emulates a physical newspaper both typographically and in its grid-layout. Unlike the National Gazette, the content is sorted through the use of the layout instead of individual pages.
What it does well:This is the standard blog layout with less bloat. The sidebar isn't cluttered and the body is compact. This style works well for such a site.
What it does well:This site presents the user with a short summary and four long columns as they scroll down. This technique segregates information as a segue to other pages.
What it does well:It keeps is simple. Nothing in excess.
What it does well:A Wordpress theme that employs similar tactics to Rainfall Daffinson.
What it does well:This isn't necessarily a brilliant design (it has no visually pleasing elements), but it is a really gutsy move by the creator of this website.
What it does well:Minimalist doesn't mean boring, and Coptix proves just that. It fuses some interactive elements with color and imagery to create a great compact design.
What it does well:This shares a page with Rainfall Daffinson in the fundamental sense, but it adds a sidebar with text and a bottom row of links.
What it does well:Peter Pixel has multiple columns and a simple navigation that could use some revamping.
What it does well:
In its small width, this Wordpress theme emphasizes content and sidebar on an even scale. Also, making the width smaller makes a sentence look more like a paragraph.
15???????????? | ????, on September 27, 2008 at 5:36am, said:
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Daily Links | AndySowards.com :: Professional Web Design, Development, Programming, Hacks, Downloads, Math and being a Web 2.0 Hipster?, on October 26, 2008 at 10:02pm, said:
[...] 15 Sources of Minimalist Inspiration Get some inspiration for your next project! [...]
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