Whitespace or Dead Space: Beware the Horror Vacui of Web Design
Snakes, tarantulas, small enclosed spaces, the tallest heights, the blackest nights – and whitespace. In design circles, whitespace is a principle used to introduce context and ease of comprehension, but it’s anathema to many a client with a fear of empty, dead spaces.
Don’t mind the gap; learn how to use space in design to achieve better results, and why a little extra elbow room around copy, graphics, and images can work wonders.
What Is Whitespace in Design?
Whitespace, also known as dead space or negative space, is any space between elements in a composition. Whitespace is also something of a misnomer because it doesn’t need to be white. It can be any color or texture, provided it is free of design elements (such as text, images, or videos).
Whitespace can be large, such as the margins of a webpage, or very small, such as the space between individual letters in words.
The whitespace design principle is ancient, tracing back to centuries-old Chinese ink wash paintings and Japanese art. Western graphic design adopted whitespace as a part of the early 20th century’s Bauhaus school of modernism. Whitespace was a response to the largely Victoria design characteristics that were foundational to art and early advertisement well into the 1940s.
Today, whitespace and negative space are central components of effective user interface (UI) design. Brands and users rely on the good use of whitespace in design to achieve better user experiences in what can often be an overwhelming digital realm. Dead space in graphic design has become even more important than it was in print advertising because it makes content easier to skim, more accessible, and highly organized.
How Space Is Used in Design
It’s tempting to fill every nook and cranny of a webpage. Many believe that every space should be used (and packed closely together) to promote the website’s content. However, filling every space can negatively affect the user. The page can quickly become crowded, overstimulating, and directionless.
When everything is the most important thing on the page, nothing stands out.
The key is to strike a careful balance between the content of a webpage and whitespace. When done well, the benefits can be profound.
The Benefits of Whitespace in Graphic Design
Improved legibility
The most important and obvious benefit of whitespace is improved legibility.
Spacing between lines, the margins around images, the length of each line, and the breathing room around paragraphs – the use of whitespace plays a crucial role in making content legible.
Let’s apply some well-balanced whitespace to a content sample to see how it affects the legibility:
The example on the left appears cramped, and the paragraph breaks are difficult to distinguish. It is readable, but imagine if every webpage neglected whitespace. After a while, online reading would lead to serious eye strain.
In the example on the right, we integrated additional whitespace throughout the text. We expanded the space around individual paragraphs to help delineate them clearly. We also increased the leading (line-height) and made the type slightly larger. We also made several other small but significant changes. Each change aided the piece’s readability and enhanced visual harmony.
You might notice that the example on the right takes up more space. Luckily, this is okay because when it comes to the web, we can customize our pages to accommodate copy length. Unlike a postcard, flyer, or other printed materials, which have very limited and precise dimensions, we rarely need to cram content onto the page for the sake of space.
Read More: Does “Above the Fold” Matter Anymore?
Better Comprehension
Adding whitespace around paragraphs and blocks of text can increase reading comprehension by 20%.
Empty space can help people remember your content more effectively, which means they’ll remember your products or services when they’re ready to convert. Effective pages are more than just words; the placement of images and other design elements is of equal importance.
Increased Emphasis
Want someone to zero in on a call to action or an important piece of content? Whitespace is a powerful way to draw the user’s eyes towards on-page focal points. Placement, scale, and whitespace allow designs to create a hierarchy of information that prioritizes the most important element or action.
“Make the Logo Bigger”
The immediate reaction for many when trying to add attention to content is to simply make it bigger, but adding whitespace often is more effective in (to use a term most designers find cringe-worthy) “making it pop.” Instead of an oversized logo, dead space can make your brand stand out without intruding on the rest of the composition.
Sophistication and Elegance
Whitespace is important when it comes to how your brand is positioned. As a culture, we associate brands that use lots of whitespace with quality, luxury, sophistication, and elegance. Brands that use very little whitespace are associated with the opposite attributes. They are viewed as cheap, low-quality, unsophisticated, and misleading. Think of those dreaded promotional junk mailers in your inbox that are crammed with specials and discounts with the Giorgio Armani ad in Vanity Fair. Between the two, which feels more premium and compels you towards a purchase?
When it comes to your brand, think about where it falls on the brand persona spectrum. You may not be Cartier, Bentley, or Burberry, but do you want to be Valutime, Pabst Blue Ribbon, or some other “bargain bin” brand?
Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Whitespace
Web design is a tug of war between a multitude of elements and priorities: to convert and delight, to grab attention and move users to the next page. Space is one of several critical components in balancing these design objectives and improving the user experience, and we know how to make all the pieces fit together. Start your next graphic or web design project with a curated team of designers and strategists and maximize the impact of every pixel. Get in touch or call (231) 922-9977 today to get your project rolling.
