“There’s so much empty space in here, let’s add in some more pictures!”
No.
“Can we add something in these white spaces, so it looks less… bland?”
No.
“What if we–“
NO.
Say it with me, white. space. is. good.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at these two websites below.
Okay, so maybe the example on the right is a little extreme – but it gets the point across, right?
There are brochures and posters that I have seen just as cluttered as LingsCars website. White space is important and GOOD for any piece of design, online or print.
White space helps people read your content better. It actually encourages them to read, rather than quickly clicking out of your website because it makes their eyes bleed. If you’re going to spend the time writing your content, make sure people can actually can and want to read it!
In the past, I’ve had several clients who want their design to “pop” more, so they ask me to make something larger, or brighter, or… whatever. But what if, instead of adding to the design, we took something away to make an element pop more. Is a red t-shirt going to pop more in a crowd at a concert, or in a single row of people?
A common problem that causes lack of white space is too much information. In this world of people reading less, skimming more, etc., people want to make sure they get ALL the information right there in the FRONT, so no one “misses” it. Well, if it looks like LingsCars website, no one is going to read it anyways.
Now, white space doesn’t actually have to be white. The term white space refers to space that isn’t occupied by text, images, or other visible elements. Even if your website or brochure has a blue background, there can still be white space.
Great point!! When in doubt, leave it out 😉 it works for writing, organization, everything else in life just as well as for design. Going to go take some tasks out of my daily schedule now, so I actually have focus and energy for those that matter!
I hate arriving on a website, thrilled to read a blog post, but then immediately turned off because of how much is happening on the page. White space = clean space. Great points in this post!
Excellent! I love white space, and use it a lot to help focus my clients’ sites down to what’s actually important!
I love this! Nothing like making a point in a millisecond with side-by-side images of websites. Total rock star style, hahaha. And white space makes me itch but it’s what adds oomph to everything else on the page that is "just so." Restraint matters!!! Hat tip.
YES
when I was studying design icon magazine released a cover all white saying "white won’t save you", or something like that.
They.
Were.
Wrong.
Great post! I run into this conversation all the time. I love how you break it down – and your example is amazing 🙂
I need to show this to my coworkers because it applies to everything … including PowerPoint presentations. We do not need to cram every single point on one slide. And then make the font smaller so there’s room for a graph. Nice reminder and awesome example, Jess.