Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
— Steve Jobs
What is minimalism?
In 2014, when asked why he chose to wear the same grey T-shirt and hoodie every single day, CEO and founder of social media giant Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, claimed it helped him make better decisions. 'I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible,' he'd said.
Minimalism is more than just a design movement — it's a school of thought. Over the last few decades, minimalism has wriggled its way into almost every modern art-form, inspiring artists, designers, and even businessmen. In place of striking, complex structures and clusters of complicated hues, minimalism makes use of cardinal geometric shapes and bold, solid colours.
At its core, minimalism is about stripping a design down to its bare essentials. No more, no less. But while it can help reduce the number of mundane decisions made in a day, employing minimalism is no walk in the park.
Less, but better
In general conversation, minimalism is considered practically synonymous with simplicity. The phrase 'less is more' is tossed around quite a bit in discussions around the topic, and while it isn't entirely invalid, it isn't the exact ethos minimalism is fueled by — especially not in product design.
A minimalist product likely contains fewer components than a product designed more extravagantly. However, fewer components don't necessarily mean less functionality. It means each part needs to perform more functions. Similarly, a minimalistic business model doesn't depend on fewer resources but focusing those resources into a few, select areas.
Minimalism in product design isn't about stripping away core features, but rather removing the clutter — the gimmicks, if you will. It is subtraction till the point of failure, enlisting the culmination of a straightforward design vision with robust functionality.
This not only helps companies design products with clarity, but it also provides the consumer with a clearer idea of what problems that product can solve. Additionally, it allows for useful and unique product attributes such as being less distracting and introducing stylistic cohesion.
Too little, too late?
With both money and time as limited resources, it seems almost evident that most businesses would strive to provide as much value in their product as possible. Why wouldn't you want to attract as many people as possible? Why drive away potential customers who require additional features or functionality?
Creating a product that satisfies various requirements sounds excellent on paper, but is a far more difficult plan to execute in the real world. Allocating a small number of resources into developing a large number of mediocre features leads to a lot of dissatisfied customers instead of a small group of fans. It's much more practical to dedicate as many resources as possible to a small feature set.
That being said, not having enough functionality can also be a problem with this design language. Minimalism doesn't equate to being cheaper to develop, and if the product can't compete for value, no one's going to care how simple the design is. It's about pairing enough simplicity with adequate functionality.
Real-world application: SnapEx
When SnapEx started in 2017, there were already several products on the market, offering a plethora of features from insurance to mining funds. The goal was to create a powerful, customer-focused margin trading platform for cryptocurrencies. And just that.
This was the foundation for shaping operations and product design — a single-minded focus on the essentials. Why offer mediocre products that users won't use when you can provide excellent functionality in core features?
Instead of offering various features like copy trades, trailing stops, and complicated K-line displays, the focus was on making one thing work entirely — provide a seamless margin trading experience with world-class customer support and secure fund management. With dedicated teams in more than seven countries, the minimalist approach proved successful.
Minimalism is not new
Although New York artists popularised minimalism in the '60s, it is uncertain exactly when this bare-bones design vision was first implemented. Over the last century, prominent designers around the world have used designs similar to minimalism in their work. Certain elements can even be traced back to centuries ago, in Islamic art.
Today, minimalism is practically everywhere from cell phones to cake designs. It's so prominent in modern design that it's near impossible to avoid. Over the years, even large corporations (Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Durex) that previously incorporated clunky and unintuitive designs, have shifted to more visually and logically simple aesthetics while providing the same functionality.
From technology and transportation to graphic design and communication, the impact minimalism has had on the world is hard to understate. And having survived the test of time for at least the last century, it's unlikely this school of thought will be going anywhere any time soon.
