Why Spacing Is Crucial in Web Design
White space in web design can be defined as the space that is not occupied by content in a page layout. Furthermore, it is the amount of spacing between different objects and text within a website. Spacing can be used to group elements and content together to provide legibility and flow. Creating appropriate spacing when designing websites can be difficult – especially when dealing with fonts, colours and images. Excellent spacing can take your website from “okay” to excellent – it provides “pixel-perfect” quality in web design. I will be going over some tips to effectively implement proper use of white space when designing your next website.
Legibility
This may be one of the most obvious reasons designers use white space, but it subconsciously has a huge impact on the viewer and how they intake content and images. Without spacing, elements within the website become combined, creating no purpose. This makes the user dig deeper to read information that should be available for them to read, even by skimming.
Text that is crammed together with minimal line spacing can be difficult to read. In fact, many viewers will simply skip over the content or leave the website all together. Use less white space between information that belongs together and more between separations in the website. Using this type of spacing will place emphasis on important content and images, rather than causing confusion for your visitors.
Proximity
A website that have good proximity does not overwhelm its users with information. Using the principles of proximity also allows users to differentiate between blocks of content, creating visual hierarchy and consistency throughout the website. Be sure to use grids when designing for the web. They can be very useful and forces you to provide spacing between sections (like around images). Grids not only provide necessary padding, it let’s the content on your website “breathe” – allowing your users to get the information they require quickly and comfortably.
White Space Doesn’t Need to be White
Micro white space in a design is defined as the space between elements such as list items, words and letters and images and captions. This white space does not have to be white. This is simply the amount of padding between each element that creates a harmonious and balanced layout. Most of the websites used in my examples below use passive web spacing, that isn’t necessarily white, and provides an important function within the overall layout.
Having an eye for white space is something you have to teach yourself. There are no set guidelines or rules on how to appropriately measure the amount of spacing needed in a web design. Take a look at the bigger picture and ask yourself these questions before you finish your design:
- Is it readable?
- Does anything “feel” too close together?
- Is there any information that doesn’t need to be included?
- Can I add space somewhere to make it look better?
Knowing what looks “good” and what doesn’t is something you have to practise by looking at examples.
Janna Hagan is a web designer from Edmonton, AB. She enjoys writing for the web and blogging in her spare time.
Author: Janna Lynn Hagan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger