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White Space is Not Empty Space

When building a website, it easy to focus on the stuff that shows (text, colors, images, etc.). Often, the most impactful part of a website’s design is the part that doesn’t show—the white space. The space between elements that separates content and creates structure is equally important as the content itself. Unfortunately, most web clients think of this as “empty space.” For most, it’s space that could or should be filled with more content to get visitors to read or click more. It’s more difficult to trust that the white space is what enhances the design and greatly affects usability.

White space in web design is the space around elements that breaks up clutter; it helps information stand out and can create a content flow. Like other design elements, white space requires a balance to make sure the design creates an effective vehicle for delivering content. Too much and a website can feel detached or unorganized, while too little will create clutter.

Clients are typically prone to wanting to limit the white space. There’s always the conversation of “Can’t we fit something here?” or “Can we make this bigger?” For them, I like to explain websites as having a finite amount of space. For example, if you were to sit in someone’s car and notice it was full to the roof with stuff, you wouldn’t consider it an effective use of space, even if everything inside was expertly organized, sorted and efficiently stacked. By filling every bit of “empty space” with something, you create clutter and make everything else hard to find or less important.

A great way to ensure there is a good balance of white space in a web design is to create the content first. Creating the content before the design is a crucial step that is usually reversed. Building the content first forces you to evaluate what’s important and helps to develop an information hierarchy. Reversing this order will almost certainly decide the fate of the white space—and the quality of the content.

By creating the design first, you flip the web design process. Content creators are forced to fill space rather than focus on delivering the best message. If we find we can’t fit everything we want, instead of making adjustments to the content, clients are more comfortable sacrificing white space than content. It’s a slippery slope that always ends with cluttered websites that are not designed for the message, but rather as a vehicle filled to the top with stuff.

Just for Fun…

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