White space is the new black.
Buddy, let it breathe. The appropriation of white space in a design is one of the most over looked principles out there. Too often, I see graphics that are otherwise brilliant, but are too close to neighbors or borders, making the overall aesthetic cluttered and busy. Nothing turns a visitor away quicker that not knowing where to start or what to look at.
Our eyes need room to breathe between each new element. It’s much more visually appealing if there is ample white space between elements on a page or the edge an element is next to. I think of it as giving the brain a mini rest to catalog what it just saw before the next task. This becomes even more important as the number of elements on the page increases.
Check out this camcorder on target.com. There is quite a bit of info on this page, but because each of the page elements are given ample white space, things don’t feel cluttered. Notice the vertical space between the product title, the price, and even the list items in the “add to” list. The designer also wasn’t afraid of using small typefaces, again providing plenty of brain resting room.
Just as it’s important to know the context of a word to determine it’s meaning, consider an element’s surroundings as part of the design process.
Professional designers will always take white space into account when creating any graphic. Often, the designer will include a guideline sheet, explaining exactly how much white space to include around the element. In this example, we see how the the Apple Quicktime badge designers require space around the badge when it’s used on a page.
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May 24th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
[...] to the crowding issue. As designers, we have been taught about the importance of white space in web design. So, to restate the listener’s concern, how are we to explain that not [...]