Know the Importance of White Space in Web Design

One of the most underrated aspects of web design is the white space. White spaces are one of the most neglected elements which many novice web designers feel are unnecessary. The problem is that many developers see white spaces as empty spaces that are unutilized and may result in a negative outlook. However, you must remember that filling up all the empty spaces with colorful pictures and articles do not create a great website. Instead, it will look clumsy to the eyes of internet surfers.

The white space is a very essential and worthy part in designing a web page. You may be thinking why white space is so essential? If so, then read this article and learn the reason why you must implement white spaces while designing a website.

Function of White Space

White space is the base of good web design. Most of the web designers think that white space is the space between elements in a composition. However, it is the section of the page that remains unmarked and also the empty space between graphics, margins, and gutters. White space also denotes the empty field between the columns and between the lines of type or characters that gives a visual delight to the eye.

Nowadays, top ranking sites and the most popular sites use the potential of the white space to its fullest. This has helped them to earn more money and bring their website to the top. White space has the ability to alter the outlook of the web page. Developers and designers need to give special attention to this parameter if they want their website to have more traffic. A website with appropriate white spaces and graphics in between give people utmost joy in reading them.

So, if you wish to deliver the best product to the clients relevantly, then do not neglect the application of white spaces.

Pros of Using White Spaces

The advantages of utilizing whitespace are right down below.

• Increased Content Legibility: The owner of any website will always want the readers to be glued to the article until and unless they finish reading them. So, while the content must be relevant and worth reading, the design and proper implementation of white spaces also contribute to the same. White spaces between each paragraph and around the texts or images make it easier for the user to understand the subject.

• More Interaction: Visitors tend to be in a hurry while browsing the internet. They open a web page and return back immediately if the content, page design and the load time is not up to the mark. So, to keep the reader attached to your website, you must have a great quantity of white space. This will also improve the interaction between the visitor and the site admin. It is true that even providing a slight amount of whitespace around any image or object will draw the attention of the reader to your site. Human Factors International conducted research regarding this and found that white spaces increase comprehension by almost 20%.

• Capability to Highlight Call to Actions (CTAs): If you wish to make something stand out from the rest of the crowd, the key is to make things bigger. Being a site owner, you may choose to make either the images bigger or implement bigger buttons. Keeping in mind these factors, you can also add white spaces all around the items to make them more effective.
  
• A Clean Site Turns Out to be an Impressive Site: The first impression of your site matters the most. Solid site layouts, and amazing color schemes are the basic elements that add up to the impression of your website. However, the white space is more important because it indicates the creativity of your site. White space does not make the website look bare, instead, it brings a sense of superiority to your website if used appropriately.

• Creating Equilibrium: Implementing a very few amounts of whitespace leads to complexity, disorder, and unreliability. These are few qualities that no site owner would want in their site. In the other way, too much white spaces reflect a lack of content and a lack of user guidance. So, the best option is to balance the designs of your web page and allow the white spaces to play an essential role in making your content easy to access and improve the user experience at the same time.

• White space acts as a Separator: White space divides unrelated elements in a website. It has the ability to part images and graphics from each other. It also improves the entire visual layout. The use of white space makes way for better interaction of ideas and efficient designs.

Things to Consider While Using White Spaces

There are some protocols that you must follow even during the use of white spaces. Although white space provides great benefits, you must keep in mind that overuse of whitespace will not provide any good result. So, to check this, you must understand the cause and the solutions to solve them:

• Designer vs. Developer: The work of a designer is to create an excellent layout of your website. Then, the developer gets his hands upon the layout who hands it over to the designer once again after completing the construction phase of the web page. The website now looks different entirely after the development of the same than what it looked like in the initial phase. So, this may create confusion regarding the matter. Hence, it is very important for both the designer as well as the developer to cooperate with each other and come to a final decision regarding the layout. Then, you must give importance to the padding, margins, line heights and other details on the site to evade any kind of confusion or misunderstandings.

• The Fold: The white space feature is often avoided by the developer because the site owner insists so. Instead of using white spaces, he or she may want more articles or images in the same place keeping no empty space. You must not forget the fact that no one knows the place from where the readers will start scrolling. It is out of the hands of a developer to know the exact point where the fold on the viewer screen lies. So, it is useless to think about the fold.

• Defining Your Design: It is very important for you to consult with the client and explain the purpose behind the web design. Being a designer, you need to reply to all the clients and clear their doubts. The designers and the developers must listen to the client needs carefully and take decisions based upon that. They must be aware of the facts and explain them with patience.

Without a doubt, one of the most essential factors when it comes to website design is using the white space. It might have escaped your notice, but a good application of white space is integral to stunning web development. You can adapt as many conversion tactics as you can, but if your web design falls flat, it would be all for naught.

Unfortunately, many web designers make the mistake of not using white spaces that offer bad impression leaving users scratching their heads at the clunky navigation. Unfortunately, creating a web design that is visually pleasing and would achieve usability is not as straightforward as designers hope it would be. Excellent web design is not only one that delivers the most visual coherence but is one that delivers information, builds the brand and is technically sound at the same time.

Therefore, if you need a more accurate and precise navigation tool, then perhaps taking a gander at the implementation of empty spaces to make a good web design will help you make better websites that are not only visually pleasing but are engaging, efficient and easy to use as well.

Why Shouldn’t I Just Fill Up the White Space with “Useful Stuff”?

A site owner may want to fill up a site with advertisements and other calls to action to earn from it. But remember that doing so can reduce the number of visitors and hence the traffic. So, as the number of visitors become less, the revenue will also get hampered.

So, you can take into account these factors and using white space can improve the design of the web page.

Usage Of Dark Fonts on White Background

There has been a lot of time spent on deciding what is the best mixture of the font color and background for readability. With time, the traditional black and white combination has come out on top. No other color can match the contrast and the format of black on white and vice-versa.

This is because our eyes are more adapted to white backgrounds and it does so by tightening the iris and sharpens your eyesight. This also makes it easier to read the dark texts against the white backdrop.

Nevertheless, if you are keeping black as a background and using white fonts, then it will have a reversible effect on your eyes by opening the iris and allowing more light to enter the same. But, this is an issue because 30%-50% of the population suffers from astigmatism. Astigmatism means that they encounter blurred vision when their eye is out of focus.

White is Neutral and Secure

As stated earlier, color has a very important role to play in deciding the traffic of your website. So, selecting the right combination of color is a very important parameter for web design. Sometimes, though there is no obvious way in choosing a good background color. So, in this case, choose a color that will be suitable for all, most probably which is white.

Images are More Adapted on White

The aim is to get good contrast and match the fonts with the background. Most of the graphical representation will be appropriate on the white background as because white has the ability to let them stand out from the rest.

Websites Look the Best in White

White is a color that provides elegance and sophistication to the text and the images. It is the most underrated form that makes people focus on the content and not on other things. Use whitespace, not in the needless zones of the articles but to make the reader focus on the crucial aspects of the web page.

Whether you like to assemble your own layouts, want to improve or start producing more attractive designs, using white spaces as a theme will change the way people view your websites, and any other media that involves design. White spaces will act as a great weapon even though it does not matter whether you make a few mistakes in your web page.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is white space in web design?

White space is the negative portion of the web page that can be left blank or unmarked. Generally, it is the space between the graphics, columns, images, margins, and texts.

2. What is the use of white space?

Recent studies have revealed that using the white spaces in a proper fashion between the lines of paragraphs can lead to 20% increase in comprehension of the web page.

3. Does white space have to be white?

Although the name white space suggests the blank space to be white, it is not always so. There is no hard and fast rule that the white space must be white.

4. What is Negative Space in Web Design?

Negative space denotes the empty space between the contents and around the images or graphics. This space separates the elements and helps the users to interact with the article.