Comments on: Thoughts on mnmlsm

By: coda

coda — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:00:00 +0000

@Mokokoma: on the current date and time - tell that to the BBC! @Roho: thanks, appreciate the feedback! @warrenski: I just thought of another one - "this browser is best viewed in --- at a screen size of ---". Not functionality-related, but it is one of those things that we've abandoned as we've become wiser. There's that line I used to regurgitate: don't design for a browser, but rather for your users. @Liberta: Hehe - the Porsche 911 (along with the Cayman) happens to be one of my favourite car designs. @cameron: thanks for visiting! :)

By: cameron

cameron — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:16:54 +0000

I really like your site. The little hover effects and design nuances make this a pleasure. It is clear you have thought out your site more than most.

Good post too. It’s a tough question (how much ‘less’ is too much), but I think your conclusion is spot on. It shouldn’t really be about less so much as relevance and designing in a way that is as user-friendly as possible.

It’s good to see that there are South Africans around that are working at great standards-supported web design.

cam

By: Liberta Design

Liberta Design — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:46:04 +0000

Now I know the formal reason for your footer design, it’s not just a “man that looks good” anymore. :)

I’m also a fan of simplicity; there are many examples of simplistic designs that just keep shining out above the rest, both in how they look and how they work.

Take for example the Porsche 911 – beautiful and yet so basic, Glock pistols – the popular Glock 17 consists of only 33 parts, and Google (I mean, what website looks simpler??).

By: Amadeus

Amadeus — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:43:38 +0000

Good post. I would add a bit to it though.

For me, when it comes to design, layout and user experience, it’s less about being minimal and more about leading the user through an experience. Minimalism then becomes part of the process in guiding the user through the site/application.

In summary, my goals are never outright minimalism (although I do think that guy’s blog is the perfect place to experiment with new ideas), but user experience, and minimalism is one of those key concepts that can be used to create a better and easier to understand experience.

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:23:28 +0000

Really nicely put. I think the “keeping up with Mrs Jones” approach to functionality is more prevalent than we sometimes like to admit. Especially (and maybe it’s just me) among purely marketing folk who get put in charge of “getting the new corporate site up”… Soooo many times lately I’ve heard someone wanting some feature, even stating it as “crucial!”, only to realise that after explanation that the person doesn’t really know what this particular button actually does. Aaaargh! :-)

By: warrenski

warrenski — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:52:26 +0000

Excellent post, dude. You’ve put down in writing what I’ve been thinking about for quite a while: don’t try to replicate or emulate browser functions within sites.

I think, as with most things on the Web, there’s an experimental stage where a new gimmick is introduced and is the centre of attention for a length of time, e.g. from back in the day, we had animated under-construction icons, we changed the browser’s window.status text via Javascript, etc. Luckily, good designers/developers realised in time that these things, while great for experimentation value, weren’t at all beneficial to end-users and abandoned them. Thank goodness for that! The time for abandoning the things that you listed, is now.

By: justBcoz

justBcoz — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:06:14 +0000

“Question what value it serves to your users”

This is the key … know your audience and build to enhance THEIR online experience.

By: Roho

Roho — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:28:00 +0000

Great insight, I have follow your web pages since coda.coza v1, and is always amazing how much tough you put in your designs. Thanks for keeping me up in what is coming next.

By: Paul M. Watson

Paul M. Watson — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:38:39 +0000

I wish his site was working so that I could take a look…

By: Mokokoma

Mokokoma — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:22:35 +0000

Some very good points.

I think displaying the current time+date is the quite silly, that ‘privilege’ is right in front of the user [on the operating system's interface]…