To make a website simple is not really an easy task. However, before going towards simplicity you should understand that it does not equate an aesthetic of minimalist design. To adopt simplicity you need to remove all the unnecessary elements- content or a piece of code from the design of the website. Though minimalist sites fulfil the above requirement, you could find many sites that are simple and never can be tagged as “minimalist”. You can find out the basic aspects of a simplified website and the ways that makes it simple from the discussion underneath.
A website is easier to navigate if it is simple. The basic requirement is to be just to the point but extraneous. To have less pages and sections prosecutes a site simple and that makes the design more accessible. It is easier to find out the navigation keys since many elements are not cluttered in a short space. The basic strategy should be to concentrate on a single or fewer things at a time. The consistency of the navigation is another important point to be remembered in the course. To simplify the main navigation, a sub-navigation can be used. Just put the less relevant elements under a separate heading. The navigation links may be grouped into specific categories using dropdown menu. It can effectively add a clear vision to the website.
It is easy to load a simple design faster for smaller file sizes. You should avoid multiple stylesheets and thousands of JavaScript files and on the contrary keep the code simple and slick. It also helps you to skip the increasing numbers of HTTP requests. The benefit of a quick loading and quick responding website is a improved user experience. And if Google launches Caffeine in 2010, the loading speed of a website is going to play a huge role in organic ranking.
The contents are more scannable in a simple website. Just focus on the most important part of the content and ask the visitor to take action. The basic logic is to get more attention from the viewers on the content – that matters most. Since the regular habit of the most viewers is to scan a page rather than reading, it’s better to help them rather than challenging the habit. The challenge is to make the page user-friendly.
Another important aspect is to write proper title of the pages and sections. This also helps in search engine optimization and marketing as well as helps the visitors to easily find the piece of content he or she is looking for. Many website uses fonts that are not supported by browsers and thus needs to turn them into images. This unnecessarily increases the file size. Unless it is very important, you should use common fonts.
