Improving designs using whitespace
Whitespace is the negative space between elements in a composition. In design terms, it’s the space between graphics, columns, images, text, margins, and other elements. Many of us consider it as a waste of valuable space in designs, but it can be a valuable element of design.
Read more about it —
I’ll be talking about how to use whitespace in design to make the designs more intuitive and clean. Read more
Why use whitespace?
While designing we have the challenge at hand to make designs simpler for the users to understand. A rhythm can be created in products by adding whitespace to our layouts. These rhythmic patterns can then subconsciously make our users expect the content in a particular manner and accessing the content can become very intuitive and overt for them. Read more about patterns and how we perceive them in designs.
All the elements in a good user interface design use whitespace in them. These are —
- Macro whitespace — margins in the page and space between graphics, etc.
- Micro whitespace — line-spacing and letter-spacing and padding in components like buttons, etc.
Let us see what are the 4 key aspects that you can improve using whitespace -
1. Legibility and Readability
As the web is about more and more content, it is of utmost importance that the text you put is easy to distinguish, legible, and easy to scan and read by the users.
“Apply the right amount of whitespace consistently to create beautiful symmerty.”
A proper amount of whitespace between characters and paragraphs increases the legibility of the text while the overall spacing between different elements makes the overall content more scannable. Learn more about how to create rhythm in the web using typography. This helps in defining the overall rhythm of your product/website.
Read more about rhythm in web typography-
2. Create logical relationships
Gestalt’s principle of grouping states that we humans naturally perceive objects as organized patterns and objects. It is one of the most practiced principles in which we group relatable elements together.
“Group relatable elements together to make a great visual rhythm.”
For example, we place labels closer to the input boxes to give them a sense of a group and we also group relatable input boxes as they have a logical relationship. Due to this, the forms become easy to understand and navigate. This is just one example where we can create logical relationships.
3. Symmetry and Asymmetry
As we are talking about creating visual rhythm by logical grouping, we should also talk about symmetry and asymmetry in design. Most of the design layout is structured and symmetrical which creates a repeating rhythmic pattern which leads to a good visual hierarchy of the elements. But, we also have to take the asymmetrical design approach in cases where the elements need to stand out.
For eg — The body sections of a page in our products seem to align themselves in a rhythmic section in comparison to the header. This makes the header stand out and this is the reason to use asymmetry in design. So, to highlight a certain element in our designs, we can also take the asymmetric approach.
“The more whitespace around an object, the more attention it seeks! (for eg- Google Search page)”
The google search page is the prime example of how to use whitespace to attract user attention and put the emphasis on the thing that the page is intended to do, Search!
4. Define your product character
Using macro and micro whitespace in different styles results in defining the character of your website/product. As you might have seen, there are some websites which use more whitespace to give a feeling of sophisticated, and a high-end product. White websites with less white space tend to be associated as cheap or mediocre.
“Less whitespace = cheap; more whitespace = luxury.”
If this phenomenon is kept in mind while building products, you can shape your product accordingly and this can help you reach the target audience that you want.
The concept of 1+1 = 3
The above 4 key aspects give an idea about how you can apply the whitespace to your benefit and better the designs. Now there is another interesting topic by Edward Tufte which states how 1+1 = 3. This is I think the most important concept to learn how whitespace can better our designs. I’ll give a brief summary of the key learning from his theory, but I will advise reading the article below -
Let’s try to understand this concept by example. When we separate elements in a 2 column table using a vertical separator, there are not just 2 but overall 3 elements. The extra element(vertical separator) can be removed and easily replaced by whitespace.
“Whitespace helps designs look cleaner and makes a big difference in what you try to communicate.”
This not only makes the UI lighter but also increases the scannability of the table.
Conclusion
We as designers keep hearing that we should reduce the extra space added and create more real estate to put in some more data, but it is very important to understand the value of whitespace not just as empty space, but as a valuable design element. As we need to breathe, so do our designs.
Whitespace is difficult to master. Trying to understand the right amount of whitespace for layout takes a lot of practice.
“It is our duty as designers to leverage the value of whitespace in our designs!”
So, you might have taken into notice that this blog also follows the principle above and since you were too involved in reading, I guess it did the trick and showed you the impact of whitespace ;)
Thanks for reading! Comment for letting me know if you enjoyed reading this article or if you have any questions for me. Also, let me know how can I improve further.
