White Space in Web Design

Whether you're thinking of a design for your brand new venture or a redesign of your existing website it's likely that you'll spend some time considering the kind of design and layout that your customers will want to see.

While that process is one that is important and highly recommended it's easy to fall into the trap of looking at a sample design and being critical of it because it contains a lot of white space. To many would-be designers white space is an opportunity to use widgets, gizmos and graphics to enhance the message.

But wait … using white space (or actually not using it and leaving it alone!) is critical to allow website visitors to digest the information and to find what they are looking for.

So how is this achieved? Looking closer at the design above we can see that there is a large gap between some of the elements. This - known as padding - allows the object to be identified clearly and, in combination with font size and colours, provides a clear signal to the website viewer.

Furthermore, the use of drop shadow and other subtle techniques can be used to add depth to what might become an otherwise boring layout if white space is used throughout.

Take a look at your own website design and see if you've got the balance of white space correct.