This has come up so often lately that it’s driving me nuts. Why do all my clients want to abolish every single bit of empty space on a page? They shouldn’t. Why? Because whitespace allows a human eye to more easily move from one section of the page to another and to focus on each without being distracted.

It sends me right round the bend that I create layouts to allow a human eye to traverse a written line comfortably only to be told by the client that we have to get rid of the room above and below it– oops, there goes the ability for the eye to easily track. Not only that, but haven’t we gotten over those overly busy layouts that were the rage at the beginning of the web?

Another problem is that I usually build fluid layouts, and am thinking of the guy who’s looking at the screen with an 800 x 600 pixel resolution as well as the girl who’s way into the four digit widths on her screen. Well, when you have header text you have to allow room for the small screen as well as the big screen. So when a client insists the lettering has to take up ALL the available room from side to side, and I find out he’s looking at the layout on a widescreen at 1280 x 960, well . . . can we say we have a problem?

Using open space to enhance the ability of the human eye to isolate different areas of a page also enhances the message being presented in each area. If the layout is too crowded, things get “lost”. They don’t have the same impact.

There’s also a certain balance that can be achieved through carefully arranging different page elements. This allows all to make up a graceful whole while presenting each separate element to advantage. Once they’re lumped together and the whitespace is gone, the harmony and composition of the design flies out the window.

I guess the best way to compare is to think of that tony and fabulous art gallery which gives each piece of art plenty of wall and floorspace around it so that people can see that piece of art without distractions or anything to compete for focus. Or you can think of a flea market with as much stuff stacked and shoved onto the tables and bins as is humanly possible. What do you want your website to look like? Expensive real estate? Or a bargain basement? Probably most websites belong somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Which is why I shudder when a client wants to turn a great design into another bargain basement bonanza. Luckily I most times manage to talk them out of it. Most times.

Technorati Tags: design, whitespace, balance, composition, presentation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 11:53 pm and is filed under Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.