White Space Isn’t the Devil
Stop for a moment and answer these three questions about your website:
- What is your most important message? (If you only had their attention for 5 seconds, what would you want them to immediately know?)
- What do you want visitors to do?
- What is your measure of conversion? (Sales, email subscriptions, etc.)
There is beauty in simplicity. There is truth in “less is more”. As a shop that frequently designs and develops websites – one of our most important tasks is in determining (and focusing on) our client’s primary calls to action – the actions they want their site visitors to take and the behaviors they want to influence.
The idea of “white space” is synonymous with the idea of “designing with intent” – being purposeful in the layout and aesthetic that is in-line with your vision and goals. If you offer too much – if you try to be everything to everyone – you’ll end up with a jumbled mess of messages that doesn’t inspire action from anyone.
Yes, it’s important to have your most important message “above the fold” - but the idea that people will not scroll is a myth (seriously, it’s been scientifically proven). Your visitors will scroll, if your offering scroll-worthy content (yes, I just coined the term “scroll-worthy”).
The ultimate takeaway from this conversation is to prioritize. It’s why we begin our branding process with a conversation on vision, goals, big dreams, and calls to action. You almost certainly have many things you want your web visitors to do – from learning more about you, identifying your services, reading your content, subscribing, buying, and so on – even the most basic website will point you in many directions. But today, you’re tasked with prioritizing these goals – and then finding a way to reflect those priorities in the layout and interface of your website.
Don’t be afraid to let things breath a little. Embrace the white space. Prioritize. Focus.
You’ll thank me later.
Unfortunately the retail space is often pretty hard-sell, and tries to get as much “value” out of the space they have. So they cram everything they can into that limited space.
Interestingly, the “premium” (read: expensive) brands don’t feel the need to cram everything into a small space. They embrace negative space. It’s the difference between Prada and Old Navy.
I’ve just about decided that what you’re really paying for is confidence on either side of the transaction. Confidence on the part of the buy and the seller.