White Space in Design: Important Guidelines Every Designer Should Know
White space is very important in every graphic design composition. Designers use the term ‘white space’ to refer to negative space or the spaces between various design elements. It does not necessarily mean for it to be ‘white;’ but this space could be a different colour or a texture that separates elements together.
White space in design is classified into two types based on its utility in a layout:
Active White Space
This is the space in your design that you make a conscious effort to include for emphasis and structure. It is intentionally omitted to draw attention to the content and to distinguish one element from the other.
Passive White Space
This is natural white space, such as the space between words on a line or the space around a logo or graphic element.
Another way to distinguish between whitespaces is by their size and density in relation to the content:
Micro White Space
Micro whitespace refers to the little gap between design components. It appears across lines and sections. It encompasses both the gap between grid pictures and the space among menu links.
Micro whitespace also has a direct influence on content readability. The quantity of whitespace surrounding paragraphs, for instance, impacts the user’s reading pace and understanding. When content appears throughout the borders outside of typical paragraphs, readers view it more slowly. It is more difficult for them to grasp than material with no borders.
Macro White Space
The large space between major layout elements, as well as the space surrounding the design layout, is referred to as macro whitespace. Macro whitespace can be found to the right and left of most website content, as well as in the space between content blocks. In contrast to micro whitespace, macro whitespace serves as a container for the overall design. It has a “big picture” white pace that is easier to notice.
What is white space in design and why is it important?
White space is omnipresent, but it is so discreet that we don’t always give it attention. But that is just exactly how it’s supposed to function. White spaces are not intended to attract, but instead, it helps us focus on the elements that it surrounds.
White space, like all other design elements such as images, fonts, graphics, illustrations and so on, is extremely important. There isn’t a lot of white space in a design because the designer didn’t know what to put there. It was designed to draw attention to other elements of the layout and/or to convey a specific mood.
Here are some explanations of the importance of white space in design:
1. It facilitates reading and understanding
White spaces are used to separate elements and to help us identify the visiting areas. Without spaces, it is difficult to read, understand, and identify distinct elements from another. Thus, it’ll be difficult for the design to be interpreted. In short, white spaces are important for a design to make sense.
2. It guides the users/audiences
White spaces allow the user to focus on an action, word, or element resulting in a more comfortable navigation and, therefore, better reaching the proposed objective. The larger space around an element, the more it is interpreted as an important component within the design.
3. It makes the design more attractive
A good design usually has an abundance of white space, and white space often adds elegance to designs. A clear example would be Chanel, where in all its elements: web, packaging, printed articles; they include white spaces to reinforce the brand’s image of elegance. In addition, white spaces give an appearance of simplicity and cleanliness in a digital product, which improves the perception and experience of users.
Spaces also reduce clutter and eases a cluttered mind. Wise usage of white spaces improves the visual quality of designs and by giving emphasis to every element, it is easier for people to receive the message and thus, stimulating positive signals.
4. It makes the design more effective
Spaces are required to give emphasis on important parts and to focus on what matters. In design, white spaces will help the audience to take in the importance of each element that makes up its entirety. Therefore, white spaces help the design to be more effective in getting the message across to your audience.
A white space can also mean a distinct background colour. Colour adds essences to your designs and are important to stimulate emotions to your audience. The better colour you choose for a targeted audience, the more effective your design will be.
5. White space means usability
White space is always helpful for the user, in printed materials books with wide margins are preferred by users to those who do not have them, due to their ease of reading. This custom of users is usually transferred and there are also studies that support that reading comprehension improves the more blank spaces there are in a design. In addition, the white spaces direct towards the actions that users want to do in a digital product as in the case of CTAs.
6. White space makes your content legible
Although white spaces are not the only factor involved in the legibility of texts, they are important in the delimitation and hierarchisation of these. In addition, users appreciate that there is space between the different content and that the texts breathe.
7. White space gives your users a break
In the field of digital, technologies are advancing and digital products are becoming more and more complicated. For this reason, a good prioritisation of the functionalities and the existence of blank spaces that clearly delimit the navigation menu from the rest of the elements of a digital product is increasingly essential.In addition, blank spaces help users to clearly differentiate the different content that you present to them and helps them make a better decision, since you do not overwhelm them with an excess of information
Guidelines & Examples Every Designer Should Know
Three elements to consider when using white space in design:
Readability
White space in design is essential to make web content readable. As designers, we must think about white space especially with choosing design type specifications: size, font, style, colour, line spacing, and tracing, and kerning. Changing the layout of the white space affects read performance, and the overall user experience.
Tone and branding design
White space contributes to the tone of the overall design. For example, websites with a lot of white space can reflect minimalism. It is for this reason that our use of blank spaces should not only improve the user experience, but should also fit the tone of our brand.
Focus and attention
Blank spaces in design can help guide the user through the content of a website, whether viewed from a computer or from any other medium, such as a smartphone. Blanks can make it easier to create focal points, helping to direct the user’s attention to specific parts of the design.
Part of strategic planning for a website is prioritising specific elements or content. We may use a variety of visual techniques to emphasise certain features, one of which is to experiment with the quantity of white space surrounding these focus areas.
Your Turn…
The basic principles are always what’s important to create designs that are effective and pleasing to the audience’s eyes. Many assistive graphic design tools like DesignStripe.com, Pixelied.com and Figma.com, can help you create designs that are guided with many design principles. However, it is good to learn the basic application in order to build a good design career foundation.
The next time you design, be mindful of your white spaces and how you apply them in your design. Observe the differences of space placements and element distances and you’ll know how great of an impact a simple space would have.
Author Bio:
Jenn Pereira is a UX/UI designer and an experienced writer. She loves to explore the elements of art and design, and usually thinks out of the box when it comes to designing products.
She works as the Marketing Lead at Removal.AI — an AI platform used to remove image backgrounds ideally for ecommerce, photography, fashion industry and web and app development purposes.
