Every month a breath of new web design projects filter into our company. As our core expertise and business focus is custom web and software application development, my attention is more distant with regards to corporate design now-a-days. However, my eyes caught a project in the works and I thought to myself "When does minimalist web 2.0 design go too far?" What I mean by that is how clean and clutter free can a website get until the allure of the service or product falls by the wayside? There is definitely a happy means or "Zen" that needs to be reached during the design process.

In web design, minimalism refers to the use of the smallest amount of images, colors, shapes, values and lines. The site is stripped down to the fundamentals required to convey the message. Minimalist web designs generally rely on type and simple shapes to do the communicating. This minimalist approach has evolved in some circles as the basis of web 2.0 design. The backbone of the web 2.0 era that ushered in blogs, videos, podcasts, wikis and online communities where people with common interests get together to share ideas, media, code and all types of information was meant to be more - not less, but designed in a way where information is easily accessed on a clean and simple layout. This is a far cry from the "massive content, image heavy with more features to shake a stick at" era which for the most of us, is a recent memory.

Back to the topic at hand. I was reviewing a design today that was clean, light, uncluttered and what many would classify as a solid web 2.0 design. This is what the client requested and it is what was put together by one of our designers. It was well designed and exactly what the client requested but my wife brought up a very good point. It was basically "where's the beef?" She was right, what would move this website's first time visitors to click past the homepage and come inside to learn about what the company had to offer? Good design - yes, easy to navigate - yes, the instant pull that conveys the site's message enticing a user to want more - no. Imagery is great if it conveys the correct message and clean designs only work if enough real estate is allocated to allure the users in deeper. There needs to be a fine blend between text, imagery, navigation and space on a website. A website has 5 seconds to get the attention of a user and every site that will be successful needs to convey their message quickly and powerfully.

If you own a website yourself, take a look at your homepage and ask yourself these 3 questions.

1.    Does your imagery and text provide the message you want to provide in the first 5 seconds of seeing it?

2.    How do you think your story can be told effectively to separate yourself from the competition?

3.    Who is your target audience and what do you think will quickly capture their attention?

If your current website does not provide solid answers to these questions, contact Ingenux and we can make your website convey the message it needs to attract the customers you want.