I call white space, the oxygen for the browser. It’s the element that is there to give your visitor a chance to breathe between parts of the information you are presenting for them, so they have time to comprehend and process.
It is a great tool to balance design elements and better-organized content to improve the visual communication experience. Enough white space will make your website look clean and modern, and will convert visitors to action-takers much better.
White space is an ACTIVE component of your page.
The main reasons to use white space in your designs
- Increased readability of your content
- Improved focus and comprehension by your visitors
- Greater comprehension of your content and offers
- Enhanced user experience by directing them to take action
Using white space effectively is the main reason why simple modern clean looking websites are performing much better. Spacing things further apart is a great way to create a distinction between groups of elements without introducing any new information into the user experience.
White space promotes elegance and sophistication improves legibility and drives focus. Without space, none of your elements can be seen. They all become just noise.
Despite its name, white space to not need to be white. It can be any color, texture, pattern, or even a background image. The term “white space” originated from the early days of print design when white paper was the most common medium.
White space, also called negative space is the portion of a page left empty. So it really is what ISN’T there. It’s like a painter’s canvas that holds the elements together in a design emphasizing the important parts.
A page without white space crammed full of text or graphics runs the risk of appearing busy and cluttered, and it’s typically difficult to read. People won’t even bother trying to understand your content, and if they don’t understand they won’t find what you offer to them and will bounce off the page very quickly.
In contrast, adding white space to each element, between lines of text, spaces between headings and body tests, and even in the letter spacing of your call-to-action buttons, increase readability and allows the visitors to process your content comfortably, and find their way to the action you’d like them to take.
White space helps you define in separate different sections. It gives your content room to breathe. If your work ever starts to feel cluttered, or uncomfortable, a little white space might be just what the doctor ordered.
By incorporating white space into a design, it improves readability, draws attention to CTAs, reduces cognitive load, and creates a sense of trust. So, next time you’re designing a website, don’t forget the power of white space.
