The Magical Benefit of White Space for Your Website Design

Some of us may think that it might be a good idea to display all the information on the page to make it easier for visitors. But it turned out that a cluttered page is uncomfortable and eye-draining. It is actually a lot better to have pages with neat layout and clean look. For that, you would need to manage something called white space.

What Is White Space

White space is a blank area that creates distance between elements displayed on a page, such as images, buttons, and writings. Despite the name, white space doesn't literally have to be in white color. As long as it is a blank area of the page serving distance between elements, it is white space. 

The Importance of White Space

The main purpose of a white space is to give the eyes a chance to rest. White space avoids your page to be cluttered. With white space, your pages will have cleaner look which is more enjoyable to look at. Websites with nice white space management will look a lot more professional and well-organized.

The benefits of white space is more than just aesthetic. It also magically improves clarity. It makes every element more visible on every page. According to research, websites with white spaces is a lot more digestible than the full ones.

If you own an e-commerce website, providing white spaces between each of your products displayed will make them clearer to look at. People tend to be more focused while scrolling your list as they pay attention to your products one by one. This helps them to find the one they really like.

Your call-to-action (CTA) buttons are also more appealing to navigate to if you put them floating on a clean white space. It is proven to be an effective trick to generate more leads on your website.

According to research, people tend to spend longer time in websites with proper amount of white spaces than the cluttered ones. It is not only because they are searching for the information they need at the first place, but it is rather to see further more about what the website has to offer.

The Usage White Space

There are 2 types of white space; micro and macro. Micro white space is the one located between texts. It includes margins and line spacing. Micro white space is needed to make sure your writings can be read properly. On the other hand, macro white space is a larger area of blank space. It is usually surrounding a content block such as articles, large image, and headings.

To properly manage white spaces on your web, try checking out these tips:

• Put it around every single element. Both micro and macro white spaces are vital for the overall quality of your web.
• Be generous in giving out white space on your page. White space is not a waste of space, so don't think you would rather fill it up with contents. Remember, the main page of Google is dominated by literal white space.
• Keep the balance. The size of white space should match the size of element it surrounds. You also need to consider the importance of that element and how far it needs to be from other elements around.
• Color it up sometimes. White space doesn't have to be left with your background color. You can use some specific colors for some specific white space. For example, you use a solid black color around an image to frame it. The white space around CTA button is usually colored too to make it more appealing.
• Review your page again and again to make sure you have provided enough white space to reach your goal. Have some other people to review them to see if they have different experience.

White space is an effective element to improve the quality of your website, both aesthetically and functionally. It reflects the common rules of design, "less is more".