Okay, so I kept hearing this name, Matt Maysey, tossed around in some design circles I follow. People talked about his way of doing things, usually something about keeping it really simple, stripping things back. Sounded interesting, you know? Less clutter, more focus. I thought, why not give it a shot myself?
My Little Experiment
I decided to try this “Maysey approach” on my own little corner of the web, my personal blog. It was getting a bit messy anyway, lots of widgets and stuff I’d added over time. Seemed like a good candidate for a cleanup.
First steps were pretty basic. I just started hacking away. Removed the sidebar. Got rid of the fancy footer with all those links. Trimmed down the navigation menu. Felt pretty good initially, like I was making progress just by deleting things.
- Deleted social media icons I rarely updated.
- Removed the tag cloud – who even uses those?
- Simplified the color scheme drastically.
Hitting a Wall
But then, things got tricky. Just taking stuff out made the site feel… empty. Not minimalist, just broken. Finding older posts became a pain without proper navigation aids. The super simple layout looked okay on my desktop, but was a nightmare on my phone. It wasn’t just about removing; there was clearly more to it that I was missing.
I realized I didn’t really get this Maysey idea beyond “less is more”. It felt like I was just following a vague instruction without understanding the why. It was actually harder work than just throwing everything onto the page!
Digging Deeper (Without the Shovel)
So, I had to backtrack. I spent some time looking at examples people said were inspired by his style. Read some discussions about the philosophy behind it. It wasn’t just about emptiness; it was about making sure every single thing that was there had a real job to do. Intentionality, I guess.
It clicked a bit better then. It’s about clarity. Making the main thing – the content – super easy to access and read. Everything else needs to seriously justify its existence.
Round Two: More Thought, Less Hacking
Armed with this slightly better understanding, I started over. This time, I focused on the core purpose: reading the articles.
I thought carefully about navigation – how could someone find related posts easily without a massive menu? Settled on simpler previous/next post links and a very basic category list. Focused on typography to make reading comfortable. Made sure the mobile view was just as clean and usable.
It involved:
- Choosing one clear font.
- Using whitespace generously, but deliberately.
- Making sure search was easy to find, as it became more important.
- Testing on different screen sizes constantly.
Where I Landed
The final result? It’s much cleaner now. Definitely simpler. Is it a perfect “Matt Maysey” design? Probably not. But the exercise was super valuable. It forced me to think critically about every pixel, every feature. Why is this here? Does it help the reader?
It wasn’t just about looks; it was about respecting the user’s attention. I feel like my blog is more focused now, even if it took a frustrating detour to get here. Still learning, still tweaking, but it was a worthwhile process sparked by hearing that name.
