Tags – Benefits of White Space in Design
White space is one the most overlooked elements in design, but it’s so important to make a great web layout.
Many people unfortunately view white space as a waste of screen space, but the truth is: it’s one of the most valuable components when it comes to creating an effective website.
Just to be clear, by white space I mean negative space (it doesn’t necessarily have to be white), and it’s the space between elements in a composition.
Simply, it is the portion of the page that is left untouched; the space between graphics, margins and gutters. Simply, the space between columns, lines of text or graphics gives breathing room for the eye.
If used correctly, it can significantly transform any design and provide many benefits for your website.
The reason being, businesses need to deliver content that is easy on the eye and makes people want to keep reading.
And so, a skilled designer uses white space to guide attention, solidify branding and drive actions.
Now that we’ve discussed what white space in design is, here are 4 benefits of using white space on your website.
1. Guides Readers
In order to create excellent UX design, you have to think like your users.
Ask yourself:
- What do they want from your website?
- How do they interact with your product or service?
- What problems or pain points can you help them solve?
Then, white space helps designers to answer these questions visually.
Simply, white space works to reduce visual clutter by minimising the site’s content to only its most important elements and therefore makes navigation a lot easier.
In other words, designers use white space to help guide visitors through your website, make key points of interest easy to see and highlight opportunities for visitors to take action, like making a purchase or completing a form.
2. Makes Your Website Easier to Read
As mentioned earlier, white space determines how different elements are presented on your website.
Both text white space and content white space need to work together in order to organise and display content in a way that is easy on the eye for everyone who visits your site.
As such, there should be adequate spacing in between large sections of text to make it easier to read, even when there is a lot of information packed onto one page.
Essentially, creating clear groupings of content helps readers to mentally organise the information and therefore makes it much easier to digest.
3. Creates a Visual Hierarchy
A lot of internet users will not sit and read everything that’s presented to them from start to finish.
And with the rise of mobile web browsing, a lot of users will quickly scan through text when it comes to digital content.
So, users will try and look for headlines and callouts of particular interests to find the information they need without having to read it all.
Therefore, what white space does is improve scannability by minimizing the amount of text there is and organising it into a clean, concise hierarchy.
To achieve this, consider breaking down the most important bits of information into digestible headlines to help visitors understand your main idea and take away only what they deem relevant.
4. Better Retention
Not only does white space make information easier to read, but it also helps with retention too.
Research suggests that our short term memory can only retain 7 items before we begin to forget.
And using white space to separate text and other elements helps visitors to create a mental map of your content, which can improve retention by up to 20%
To put it simply, using white space to group content into relevant chunks will prevent information overload, making your content more enjoyable and thus more actionable – if you want visitors to convert into a lead, you need to limit the distractions.
Finishing Thoughts
White space does not only create harmony and balance to your website, but it is also an effective way to guide your visitors from one element to another.
Plus, it prevents websites from looking too cluttered and distracted and instead provides an enjoyable experience, resulting in them getting one step closer in their buying journey.
Overall, white space allows you to deliver a clear message without the site looking overcrowded or overwhelming.
For more information contact us today.
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On a connected topic, if you are on the lookout for a good web designer and wondering what to look for, please check out our video below:
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