I’m a HTMinimaList Nut

I’ve been struggling lately with redesign issues for one of my sites. I find myself coming back to my favorite kind of web design; a little-known school of web design popular for about a few months more than a decade ago: HTMinimaLism.

The idea is: instead of covering up the web with heavy-handed graphic design, and other concepts held over from the print era, embrace the simplicity, utility and beauty of the web’s most basic elements.

Some of today’s most popular web sites can trace their designs back to this school of thought. The advantages are speed, readability, search engine friendliness and future-proof flexibility.

Some examples of HTMinimaLism, past and present, for the uninitiated:

Things Magazine (circa 2005) (I love the simplicity and clarity of this navigation)

Pinboard (obsessed with speed and it pays off)

Craigslist (stubborn to this design for good reason)

Craigslist (2006 suggested redesign):

Drudge (arguably the most financially successful of the HTMinimaLists):

37 Signals Manifesto (circa 1999):

Test Pilot Collective:

Stating the Obvious (circa 2000) (used an archive I still believe is the most usable I’ve ever seen):

Musicjournalist.com (one of my own sites circa 2003):

Know of any more examples? Post a link below.

Most people spend just seconds looking at a billboard. Most people spend just second looking at a website. Wouldn’t it be great if more websites were designed like billboards?

Easy is never easy enough.

Selling to Strangers or Writing for Friends

Here’s a snippet from copywriting guru Nick Usborne’s latest article, posted earlier today, titled, “Optimize web content for your readers, and the rest will follow. Hmmm…not always.”

A few days ago I tweeted the link to one of my articles: Should you optimize that web page for the search engines, or for social media?

Someone tweeted back with this message: Neither. Optimize for your reader and the rest will follow.

That someone was me.

The article goes on to try and prove me wrong, or at least partially wrong. For instance, if you were writing an article on coffee makers:

And now I’ll write a version which I believe would travel further through social media.

- 5 Things to check before buying a coffee maker.

I don’t have any data to prove it, but I’ll bet my neighbor’s flat screen TV that the second version would travel further through social media. If you haven’t noticed, lists do well on social media sites.

We’ve all noticed - especially the content farms and Guy Kawasaki’s ghost writers. It’s also the last thing I would click on. Numbered lists are the fast food of content. It’s a sure indication you’re about to be fed something empty and “optimized.” Maybe the masses haven’t caught on yet, but should the masses be your target audience?

Now, I like Nick. In fact, I’ve bought a few of his books and learned quite a bit from him. I’ll probably buy more, because I love getting all sides of a story. But, I suggested to Nick that he listen to Merlin Mann and John Gruber’s talk on 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility! (if you don’t get the joke within the title, read the previous paragraph again).

That one talk (that I keep on my iPhone for repeated listening) and perhaps Seth Godin’s latest book (read the whole thing - seriously, there’s a lot in there for web writers) summarizes just about all my experience as a blogger.

For 10 years I ran a popular blog that went through excruciating growing pains, endless monetization experiments and headline manipulations that the modern “Pro Blogger” community claims will make you rich. Truth is, there was money. Not a lot. Certainly not enough to treat my loyal readers (and best customers) with that kind of disrespect. I write today as if everyone reading is a friend. Maybe when I go back to blogging professionally, they’ll be more likely to follow.

Simplicity Vs. Clarity

Occasionally, I try to explain the benefits of clarity over simplicity to designers and writers. I mostly get blank stares. So, to better illustrate, imagine you need to know what time it is.

This is simplicity:

And this is clarity:

And this is what most web designers and writers would offer as a solution: