Technology Blog »

Behold the new minimalism

I’ve given this site a makeover with a new CSS stylesheet, as I was bored with the old look. One of my aims in this revision was to minimise the weight of the page by reducing the number and size of images, and the new style definitely wins on that score: only 2 images in the page template at a total size of just over 3K. Beat that!

Arguably, less is more in page design, especially where colour is concerned. Even the most beautifully-designed colour palette is likely to clash with some random images you put it against, so to reduce the risk of offending your visitors’ aesthetic sensibilities it makes sense to limit the range of hues in any template that’s got to work across a range of content.

Some bloggers have gone in the other direction by customising the page colour scheme to fit an image, Mezzoblue being an example. I’m no Dave Shea, though.

I’ve opted for a fixed width design for a change, partly because it makes the layout much easier to develop in a hurry. Currently it’s a bit too wide for anyone using a low resolution monitor or browsing with a window that’s not full width, but I plan to fix that, possibly using the charmingly named Switchy McLayout technique.

I don’t think this design will win any awards, but it’s easy on the eye and modern without presenting too many Web 2.0 cliches. Not a rounded corner in sight!