White Space In Your UX Designs: What Is It? Why Is It Needed? And Five Reasons To Use It

There is an obvious pressure that content designers feel when staring at a blank page before them. The need to fill up the space is only natural. White space, or essentially what is negative space can cause a lot of worry for designers. Did we put enough design elements on the page? Is our text layout and message coming across in our UX designs? What many designers come to realise is that white space is super important to the functionality and the beauty of UX designs.

Different types and categories of white space

As mentioned earlier, white space is also the negative space on a page. It doesn’t literally have to be white-it is any area that is unoccupied with design elements or text on your site. The four basic types of white space are:

1. Visual white space—the space that surrounds the visual elements of your website, such as images, icons, videos, and other graphics.

2. Layout white space—the white space that defines the margins, paddings, and gutters of your site pages.

3. Text white space—white space integrated into textual elements, such as spacing between lines, letters, and paragraphs.

3. Content white space—the space that defines the alignment of different content blocks, such as paragraphs, columns, lists, etc.

‘These four types of white space make your website more navigable, readable, scannable, memorable and actionable’ says William Hicklin, a design writer at State of writing and OX Essays. Another way you can categorise white space is by micro vs. macro white space.

Micro white space

Micro white space is the small spacing between text, lines, and paragraphs. It also includes the space between grid images and that used to separate menu links. This type of white space affects the legibility on your site. For example, marginal white space surrounding paragraphs affects the user’s reading speed and comprehension. If text appears in margins outside regular paragraphs, people read it more slowly. They find it harder to understand than text without such margins.

Macro white space

Macro white space, on the other hand, is the large space between the main layout elements and the space surrounding the whole design layout. Macro white space is usually found to the right and the left of most websites’ content, and in the space between a website’s content blocks. Unlike micro white space, macro white space acts as a container of sorts for the overall design. It’s easier to notice. So, now that we know a few different ways to categorise the different types of white space, let’s take a look at some reasons why it’s necessary to UX designs.

5 reasons white space enhances UX Designs.

White space adds a lot of positive impact to UX designs. Here are five ways in which incorporating the use of white space functions in a design layout:

1. It guides readers through the page

To create excellent UX design, you have to think like your user. What do they want when they come to your site? How do they interact with your content or product? These are just some of the questions that are answered visually by the designer themselves. White space minimizes visual clutter. Designers use white space as a guide through the site, making key points of interest easy to find, and highlighting opportunities for user actions.

2. It makes your site easier to read

Micro white space and macro white space work together to organize and display textual content in a more easily consumable way. Adequate spacing between and within large sections of text makes the content easier to read even when there is quite a lot of information packed onto the page. This makes it more digestible and much easier to understand.

3. White space improves scannability

‘People these days do not read everything on a webpage’ says Cassie Burke, a UX blogger at UK Writings and Elite Assignment Help. White space helps people cut out the excess information and improves scannability. It breaks down the most important pieces of information into quickly digestible headlines, as well as helps users take away what is relevant for them.

4. It improves retention

Research has shown that our short-term memory can retain about 7 items before we start to forget. Using white space to separate text and organize content helps users create a mental map of your content that improves retention and can increase comprehension by up to 20%. By using white space effectively, you can prevent information overload.

5. It simplifies online interactions

Since we can only process so much information at one time, you have to assume that your user has arrived to your site with several of these coveted spots in their working memory already occupied by unanswered emails, mental grocery lists, the Top 40 earworm that’s been stuck in their head since the drive to work, thoughts of an afternoon snack, etc.

How to use white space effectively

There are three main things to bear in mind when using white space in your UX designs: legibility, the tone of the design, and focus and attention.

Legibility

Micro white space is essential for making your content legible. A good designer knows to consider white space when choosing the design typography specifications, such as font, size, colour, style, leading, kerning, and tracking.

Tone of the design.

White space contributes to the overall design tone. Large amounts of white space may convey a sense of minimalism or luxury, for example.

Attention and focus.

Designers use many visual methods to highlight specific elements, including playing with the amounts of white space around these focal points. The branding and print industries use this to draw attention to brand messages.

White space is a necessary design element when making UX friendly designs. Remembering the different types of white space, the five reasons it’s used, and how to use it effectively will help your UX designs stand out and reach your audience.