Okay, so I wanted to talk a bit about something I tried out recently, this ‘eric van hoof’ thing. It’s not super technical, more like a way of looking at things, I guess.
How I Got Started
I first bumped into the name, Eric Van Hoof, while just browsing around, you know, looking at different ways people tackle creative problems. Didn’t find a ton of stuff, honestly, more like snippets here and there. But something about the approach mentioned caught my eye – this idea of really stripping things back to basics. Seemed simple enough, maybe too simple, but I thought, what the heck, let’s give it a whirl on a small personal project I had simmering on the back burner.
Diving In: The Actual Process
So, I had this idea for a little photo gallery website, just for family pictures, nothing fancy. Usually, I’d start thinking about all the bells and whistles – cool transitions, user accounts, comment sections, you name it. But this time, I decided to try that ‘van hoof’ minimalist vibe I’d read about.
Here’s what I basically did:
- First, I took my original feature list and just crossed off almost everything. Seriously. No logins, no comments, no complex sorting. Just pictures.
- Then, I thought about the layout. Instead of some fancy grid, I went for a super simple vertical scroll. One picture after another, nice and big.
- Navigation? Got rid of it mostly. Just previous/next, maybe. Kept it dead simple.
- Colors and fonts? Picked one basic, readable font. Used a very plain background. Let the photos be the main thing.
It felt weird at first, like I wasn’t doing enough. My usual habit is to add stuff, to make it look ‘professional’ or ‘feature-rich’. This felt like going backward. I kept having to stop myself from adding just one more little thing.
What Happened in the End
Well, I finished building that simple gallery. And you know what? It works great. It’s fast, it’s easy to use (because there’s almost nothing to use!), and the photos really stand out. My family actually liked it more than some of the fancier designs I’ve done before because it was just so straightforward.
Applying that ‘eric van hoof’ idea, or at least my interpretation of it, forced me to focus on the core purpose. What was the absolute essential need? Showing pictures. Everything else was potentially just noise. It was a good exercise in discipline, cutting back instead of adding. Don’t know if I’d use it for every project, some things need complexity, but for certain situations? Yeah, I can see the value. It’s definitely something I’ll keep in my mental toolkit.
