The Power of Simplicity - July 3rd, 2007
Over the years the websphere suffered both gradual and dramatic visual changes; from plain web pages we’ve moved to the complexly tangled framesets, through un-styled sales letter pages and multi-column decorated “works of art”.
Currently web design is simpler than ever, which is a good thing. Below are some examples of websites that do this well. Only elements that are used to communicate have been left, any unnecessary elements have been removed.
Some design qualities commonly used in modern websites include:
- Clean centered layouts.
- Soft harmonious colours, or cleverly used strong colours.
- Discreet 3D effects.
- Cute icons used in moderation.
- Stylish big text.
Edward Tufte is an expert in the presentation of information design; he uses the terms data-ink (features that communicate) and non data-ink (details that are just details) to measure the effectiveness of informational graphics such as charts and diagrams. The higher the data-ink ratio of a document, the better it communicates. This concept works for any visual medium including web design.
We have seen the good, web sites with high data-ink ratio illustrated above; now let’s look at a page with plenty of non data-ink ratio.
Globalaigs.org uses a lot of unnecessary animation; there are no words to describe the three moving heads feature at the top left, it is hilariously sad. The big logo in the center and the small logo at the top right are clickable flash movies and nothing happens when clicked, drawing attention away from the important areas of the page, the designer surely achieved this well. This site is a prime example of pointless flashturbation.
It would probably take a thousand words to grab your visitor’s attention the same way a good web page does in 8 seconds. To communicate effectively you need to eliminate the noise, create beautiful web pages that simply get your message across making your web pages clean and simple.
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”
Hans Hofmann
Tino
SEO Programmer
