How to take control of your Space and Design — a way of life, minimalism. Part II
Minimalism at this point might feel unoriginal, but there’s no doubt that it’s effective. This is especially true online when users are trying to complete a specific task. Your brain categorizes everything you interact with.
Minimalist thinking focuses on two things: Identifying what is useless. Remove it.
Yep, stupid simple. And why should you get rid of the things you have? Less clutter means less information to mentally process, which automatically highlights the beauty and meaning of what we have.
White space is the area between design elements. It is also space within individual design elements, including the space between typography glyphs (readable characters). Despite its name, white space does not need to be white. It can be any color, texture, pattern, or even a background image. White space can cause problems between designers and clients. Design theory promotes the use of white space for elegance and ensuring a quality user experience. Sadly, many clients and managers consider white space wasted space. They think it could be used to house more information or other visual elements.
People get frustrated when information bombards them. We’re humans, not machines. White space calms us, letting us “breathe”. As with the other user interface elements, you as a designer need to understand the role white space plays and experiments to Ond the right balance between it and the rest of the elements.
One of the great things about negative space is how it can be used to illustrate emotion. By having a strong focus on our subjects and our positive space, we can spend more time thoughtfully composing the negative space to help accentuate our subjects even more — applying the minimalism value of assessing what’s important and what’s not.
Minimalism isn’t about stripping away elements, it’s about adding just enough to get the job done. The bad news for designers is that most of the time what’s essential are things that, in today’s market, feel conformist. But it doesn’t mean you should completely copy other designs. Becoming a minimalist doesn’t mean stripping away your app or website’s identity. It just means being intentional about the distinct elements you do choose. It’s all about taking control of our space, life, or design.
