White space is a term of art referring to any portion of a physical or digital page that is left unmarked.  This includes margins, gutters, paragraph breaks, column divisions, and the space around and between graphics and illustrations.

These areas are not necessarily white, but they are traditionally left empty.  Because white space is characterized by the lack of content, it is sometimes known as negative space.

Why Should a Website Have White Space?

Nonstop text overwhelms both the eye and the mind.  Even the most accomplished readers will tend to skim past large blocks of unbroken text, bypassing its content.  So, at the most basic level, proper use of white space is essential to making content easier to read and digest.

By controlling the density of text, a skilled designer can also draw a reader’s attention towards specific elements of a webpage, for example, your logo if you’re building your brand, or a call to action if you are using the site to drive sales.

White space can also be used to tap into cultural expectations about use of space.  Most of our expectations about graphic design still come from the printed page, where space is at a premium.  As a result, a spare design with lots of white space tends to come across as more being more refined than a tightly packed screen, even if the latter technically contains more information.

Positively Negative

One of the things that I learned about negative space when I was studying dance, is that it can be sculpted.  In dance, it is a simple matter to make various shapes using your own body, or even to work collaboratively to make a shape in conjunction with others.  And these can be quite impressive to behold, but neither creates the same sort of ephemeral awe as an image built by where the performers aren’t.

And dancer’s aren’t the only ones to play with negative space, just look at Octavio Ocampo’s Family of Birds or the Currier & Ives print The Tomb and Shade of Napoleon.

Other Uses

Sergio Aragones, part of Mad Magazine’s “Usual Gang of Idiots” found another use for that publication’s white space. Aragones inserted subtle, humorous, dialog free cartoons into the margins. This approach is the diametric opposite of the wide, clear white space favored by in urbane designs. This is part of why his marginal cartoons fit Mad Magazine so well.

Anyone looking to build their brand about their wit and willingness to think outside the box should at least consider using their white space in a similarly clever manner.

Additional Reading on White Space and Content Density

Easy on the Eyes by Lindsay Gower

What is Whitespace? by Depthskins (at the Web Design Library)