Just my two cents.
I think that’s rather dismissive when said content is simple text in the browser. Easy solution: don’t use fixed navigation - it is a very bad UX pattern for content/informational websites. That’s why scrolling exists. I assure you that users don’t require access to your menu 24/7 when reading through your website.
I wrote about this "sticky" header problem back in 2019. Seems very relevant to this current discussion.
Content is not simple text in this case. My site is designed for visual arts and experimental literature, including poetry.
Many other art-based, photography focused and creative writing projects work fine in my browser. You seem to just be avoiding the removal of bad UX patterns (fixed elements) for personal reasons - which is fine.
But you shouldn’t hint towards the fact that it’s “how things are” and they “can’t be fixed”. You’re hurting user experience for personal preference - not limitations.
I agree with the other commenter here. If a text-only article follows the tenets of some version of 'minimalist' design, I should be able to read it comfortably on my phone. Straight to reader mode for me.
I tried it on my desktop, where it was better. But I still wouldn't call it 'minimalist.' Again, it's just an article, but the background image draws my eyes away from the text. The top and sidebars do too, but to a lesser extent.
That's fine, but it's not minimalism. If I hear that an article on the web has been presented in a minimalist style I'm going to click on it assuming that once I start in on the article that's all I'm going to notice.
Since browser's don't do it there could be a side-ribbon that had a TOP-button and then a BACK-button. I think that would be useful on sites like HN.
That's a lot to you? It's very few to me.
On the plus side, your site is friendly in reader view.
• Never justify text in digital • Never right align long form in digital • Both need to learn balance between type size and line height
My point being that applying rules learnt from hundreds of years of literary culture and printing do not 1:1 translate into digital.
Justified copy is as much about saving paper as it is about any formality/legibility. It really has no place in long form digital space where space is infinite.
Type designers like consistent and even rhythm between the ink and page. Rivers of white and large gaps between words give the ick.
To me, colors are important. I'm a visual artist. The minimal amount of colors to me is an additional two to your two. It's not arbitrary, I didn't just go crazy with colors, I settled on exactly four because I couldn't reduce it to three.
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what minimalistic design means.
If you've identified that you need a website, minimalism would be paring that down to the core essentials and ensuring it has everything it needs, but nothing more, to suit its purpose.
Websites exist to serve content. The author of this page demanded it have a background image.
Here's another page that doesn't:
That's a design element that serves the functionality well and doesn't feel superfluous at all. But the image on the colophon page I'm less excited about. It gets in the way and feels unnecessary.