Web designers love it. But sometimes their clients don’t quite understand why. Whitespace is one of the most underutilized elements in design. Most see it as an empty space needing to be filled. What most don’t know is that whitespace is not a waste of screen space. It has a purpose.
When thinking about a new website, people are often immediately inclined to put as much content on their site as possible. This can include not only paragraphs upon paragraphs of information and lists, but also images, video, large headers, etc. It’s understandable they want more bang for their buck by thinking they should fill up their site’s pages. However, it is not an ideal solution. When it comes to design, whitespace provides many more advantages.
The first impression a visitor has from your site is going to be an important one. One of the most vital features of a website is its legibility because visitors come to your site with the purpose of gathering information. All content should be easy to scan and read quickly. Whitespace gives viewers a visual break from what they are reading and can then easily organize and process that information. It can draw attention to specific areas of your site and allows your page to have clear call to actions.
Whitespace incorporates a natural guide for viewers. Keep in mind, too much whitespace can and will make a site look bare, but when used the right way it creates a sense of hierarchy for viewers to know which blocks of content to view first. Using a few solid layouts throughout your site, applying suitable color schemes and adding whitespace to give content blocks purpose will make the difference between a wonky site and a professional one.
Without the use of whitespace to separate content, there is a profound lack of user guidance. Balance the designs of your page with whitespace so you can separate sections of your content to improve user experience. Use the space as a separator of images or graphics to easily improve the visual layout of your page. Whitespace balances any kind of content without having to add more content (which as we’ve pointed out previously is not always a good solution).
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- Increased Legibility
- Scannable Hierarchy
- Noticeable Balance
A crisp, clean site that uses whitespace is an impressive site. At Informatics, we implement whitespace into all of our designs to create professionally compelling websites. Contact us today to get only the best out of your site!
