at 5:01 PM
#Design
I like minimalism a lot. It helps to navigate the environment in a much clearer and better way. The easiness that comes with it, and the pretty neat outlook of everything is something that keeps me at peace. Many of you might feel the same. Some of you would keep your working station as clean as possible, keeping your tech space as aligned as possible.
When it comes to tech, I try to keep my products as minimal as I could get them. I have lost count of how many times I have said 'as * as possible,' and that too should be considered before doing anything that's not needed. One of the essential measures I have observed to have at least a minimal looking environment is to have pretty good whitespace or just in general terms spacing elements. We tend to see many organized stuff in our day-to-day life, the components align edge to edge with each other, allowing a small space for some margin and padding. It's like a puzzle on an asymmetric board yet forming a pattern many adore.
This looks good, but that's completely opposite of what I believe minimalism truly is. I used to be like that before though. Spacing everything out yet without any space between them, keeping all things aligned yet close to each other, placing every of my fruits in just one basket. A basket that was beautiful but if you wanted to get an item that was buried all inside the pyramid, man it was a hurdle, and all that beauty doesn't mean anything if in the end it was all destroyed.
That was when I came across a design, and outlook that was special and intriguing, it has a charm all around it. There wasn't much going on, felt empty, but there was something that still gives you a sense of completeness. The clean and spacious environment, the ability to show just what is needed, and destroy all other distractions. Whenever you were submerged into it, it felt like a pleasant breeze on a sunny farm, fresh roses in the garden, and the silence of the nature is beautiful to the ears.
That's! that's what minimalism is for me, and I try to replicate that feel to every project of mine.
You see, there could be multiple features to add, many so, that you would be sometimes amazed about how much complexity it could get into. It's incredible and really impressive to see those products get so intertwined together and they seem like magic.
I adore the quality of the developers who could build all this, and make it seem like an easy task. I have tried a lot in my experience as well, and proudly enough I was able to get to a certain level until I start noticing some problems.
The problem wasn't with the product, but how unlikely I was to interact and use it if I never knew about the journey it took me to get there.
And to be honest with you all, it wasn't a satisfactory feeling. It was constant all the time, and I never felt the serotonin whenever I was over the hedge.
The time when I had a link, it wasn't even a matter of seconds to know what else was missing all this time. Missing something was the fulling of a lot many things. I tried it and I felt it. I felt it for the very first time, and it made me keep doing it even more. That's was the only point in the entirety of my well of despair that at least kept me going even though there was no progress.
It made even the simplest logic to feel the best. That's when I realized. Many a times the solution isn't always the complex, but the most usable and to the point. That goes for both the design as well as the business logic. Having a structure to the solution, a structure that is smooth and safe, is what the user always expects to be the product when they are already in a miserable place.
Even a fading light has a shine till the time it stays up, and that light could be the only chance for your survival. Instead of facing all the direction feeling all lost, maybe that single light can lead you to where you want to be.
That all means to keep things low, but very valuable, enough to share a space no other was meant to be placed on. And on top of that, coloring an empty canvas with all the colors you could imagine would certainly make a beautiful piece.
But those patterns are no different than the pattern of objects on a space aligned completely to the edges. It it beautiful, but difficult to observe.
Having all this down for someone who is just trying to keep up with the pace might make them see the negative in all the positive. Image should always be present with a context, anything without one doesn't solve the problem. Our mind likes to keep the power to the stuff that matter the most, and guessing a location inside a maze when you have an option to just walk away wouldn't keep them interested.
Keeping a sailing boat on a sainted ocean with soft appearance that keep it all soothing for you is what minimalism is. All I did was to just give it a try. There might be many things that I won't agree with after some time, many that I would do, and that's what so pretty about it. You see the progress from a certain point to the time we call present.
The human changes, so does the design, so does the its respective rules. But there isn't much of reinventing the wheel with a more unnecessary buffs, rather a change in the spread out file with a quick nicks here and there, that are unnoticeable for us, but impactful for a subtle change in perception.
Experiment gets you there, and that's how we analyze too. All of this was my analysis from my experiments and how I believe, see, and implement designs in my products. Your might be different, but if it gives you the high, you are doing good.
Minimalism for me, something for you, but you will surely catch it one day.
PS: It is the end of academic day of the year, resulting in a very little strength and little study. Nonetheless, the empty situation reminded me of writing this down, and how all of it actually felt better than daunting. A day well spend I suppose :)