The Psychology of White Space
The term “white space” was coined in traditional two-dimensional print design, and is a frequently used term in graphic and web design. Visually speaking, negative space provides relief, as well as gives intelligent organization to elements on a page by highlighting and separating text and graphics with the use of white space. Just think of white space as being in-between characters, between lines, between everything, it’s all white space. Effectively using white space means that you don’t crowd content unless you have a good reason. Effectively utilizing white space will create an invisible order and will enhance readability of any piece of design, whether it be a website, a brochure, a Christmas card, or a business card.
As designers, we use white space to create a feeling of sophistication and elegance for upscale brands. Coupled with a delicate use of typography and photography, generous white space is seen all over the luxury marketplace. In our regular dealing with photographers, we find that most are generally trying to establish themselves in a more sophisticated and lucrative marketplace. Generally, but not always, these clients are more comfortable paying higher prices for a premium service.
The cosmetics and beauty industry, for example, use extensive white space in their marketing material to tell the reader that they are sophisticated, high quality, and generally expensive. Here’s a basic example (found online) to demonstrate the psychology of white space at work:
The content is the same on both designs, as are the other elements, such as photography. Yet the two designs stand at opposite ends of the brand spectrum. On the left, less white space = cheap; more white space (right) = luxury. The solution on the right isn’t necessarily the most effective, but it quickly shows a contrasting use of white space. A lot more goes into brand positioning than just white space, but as a general rule a luxury brand’s target audience expects white space and plenty of it to align the product with its competitors.
Here are some examples of well-used white space:
Jaguar.com (sometimes white space isn’t white)
And, here are some poor examples of white space use, or no white space for that matter:
eCost.com. You have to see the animated fire graphics and police siren on the actual site.
HavenWorks.com. This makes every other bad site on the web look pretty tasteful!
To be fair, the sites we’ve shown in the “poor examples” aren’t necessarily trying to reach a luxury demographic. But in this day and age of clean, easy-to-use web design, discriminating web users demand more from sites every day.
Negative Space reference article
White Space reference article
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