What is White Space?

White space is the terms used to describe any space that is unused on a; document, webpage, email, ad, graphic, poster, leaflet, the list is endless…

Unfortunately, many designers and web developers overlook the importance of using it. We see on a daily basis people trying to cram so much information and design features into a webpage as possible.  What that does is take attention away from the main focus of the page. Personally, I think that people have the view that white space is a waste of screen space. When in reality, it is one of the most important aspects of your design.

But why?

Why is white space important?  

White space is crucial to a crisp, clean design. Whatever you are designing be that an email, webpage or blog post, you need to include areas of white space. There are many reasons why you should use white space.  We have listed just a few of them below:

Content Easier to Digest

When users come to your site they want to be able to find the content they are looking for as quick and easy as possible. White space around paragraphs of text makes the content you are producing much more inviting and easier to digest. This can hold great benefits for your site as people are more likely to stay on your site longer and return to your site in the future.

Increased Interactions

This point is closely related to the above. As well as using white space around blocks of text, you can also use padding to direct users to important features of your webpage such as diagrams. If you have a webpage that looks too busy, users can easily get distracted and miss the important content you want them to interact with.

Highlight CTAs

White space is also incredibly useful when it comes to drawing attention to your CTAs. People tend to increase the size to try and draw attention to things such as downloadable content and email sign up forms. This does work, however, adding a little around your CTAs can make them stand out to your users even more!

Find a balance

Although white space is a fantastic way to organise and make your content look clean, you need to find a balance. Too much and your website may seem lacking in quality and content, something that you definitely don’t want to be associated with your brand. Not enough and your content looks messy and daunting to a user. The key is to let white space act as a barrier between important content. It makes it easy to read and maximise your user experience.