The longer I work in design, the more I become aware of the importance of silent design. I am talking about those things I refer to as ‘just working’. You don’t acknowledge a chair’s good design each time you use it - you just don’t get back ache and are able to do your job. I’ve talked before about the times when design doesn’t work well is when you notice it. As an example is the times when your computer breaks or your sink leaks - when it’s working we just ignore it and use it. Silent design is the thing you don’t notice as it’s working well. Yet, it’s also not so ugly or so minimal that you don’t notice it. To be a true silent design it has to look good and work well. All parts from visual to function have to sit right to create a silent design. It’s also in part about creating a united design.

Open your eyes

In websites you should be aware of how you can use silent design to lead users and give them a useful experience using the site. Silent design guides the message and the site through without needing a parade of elephants. It doesn’t sing it’s own praises - it just gets on with the job whilst looking good about it.

Learning to be aware is one of the big things you can do as a designer. It’s all part of training that inner designer voice - the one that tells you pink and lime green don’t work for a calming site. Everything you do on a site should be something you are aware of. This removes the ‘putting on just because’. Whilst, I do not advocate being able to write a 10,000 word paper on why each element or design was done - it would be nice to have some knowledge of why that choice was taken beyond it ‘just looked good’.

Things you can do to create a silent design

So what are the elements of a silent design? Really, it’s about taking some basic usability principles and adding some sense into the design process. Often it’s about the things you leave out more than the things you put into the design. A few things you can do to create a silent design that just works:

1. Design for the function not just because. Make relevance and need drive the choice in elements you add as design
2. Let the design elements you do use breathe - whitespace is your friend and a friend to your users. A less cluttered design gets the message over far quicker.
3. A link should be a link and a picture should be a picture. Don’t be different just for the sake of it. Use standard user elements to their most effectiveness.
4. If a site is easy on the eye it gets off on the right foot from the start with a user. By creating a harmonious colour scheme and removing sharpness from your design, you can make the content your focus. Similarly, you can make the main text content of your site the strongest colour (black for instance) as this will focus the user’s eye on the part that you want to be the most important
5. Use one new thing at a time. If you do want to push the boundaries then just do it in one way - don’t design like it’s the only site you will ever design.
6. By using focal points and visual cues to guide users through a site you gently take them by the hand and create a useful experience for them. Users don’t like to be told with flashing lights to do this or that.
7. Following on from the last point is how you can use hierarchies with typography and site elements. This is a great way to lead the user through the design. When I talk about hierarchies it’s a complex subject that can be distilled roughly down to the stronger or bigger elements having more importance. If you think about using headers for example on a website - this is using typography hierarchy. Design and typography hierarchies are really a complex subject and this is a very boiled down summary of the subject. By using the very basic of hierarchical ‘tricks’ you can easily bring some order, sense and readability to your design. One other simple way is by grouping like with like. If there is a lot of information that is linked, group it either using white space or by using an actual border or background - grouping doesn’t have to be overly visible and often the silent grouping using whitespace is far more effective. You can also use design style to group elements with a common styling.

Few of many

These are just a few things you can do to use the power of silent design. A bit of it is about usability, but that’s not where the story ends. There are various design ‘tricks’ you can use to create a silent design. One of the big things to remember is that silent design is not all about minimalist design. You can easily have a non-minimalist silent design. The key are the old phrases ‘content is king’ and ‘keep it simple stupid’. It’s about thinking before you design, thinking during design and removing as much as you add - sometimes even more. With silent design ‘less can be more’ but this isn’t a white gloss minimalist world, you can still have colour, form and design elements.

One of the oddities of silent design is that you’d think it wouldn’t be seen on the showcase sites as much as other ’showy’ designs. Yet, if you actually look you will see that isn’t the case. As these designs ‘just work’ and achieve their goal they are good examples of excellent design. Silent design isn’t about a functional design that does nothing to please the eye. Get it right and it ticks all the boxes.