Effective use of white space in web design
White space can be your best and worst enemy. Too little and the page looks crowded and confusing, too much and the individual content elements look lost and disassociated with each other.
The effective use of white space however, is good for 2 key reasons. It removes or reduces the need for other design elements to help group items together and it actually makes the screen easier to focus on, but I’ll get to that later.
Each additional design element added to the page, even a thin line around something, is another element for your eyes to take in and you brain to process. The more physical elements on the page, the longer it takes your brain to digest what is on the page and what it is all about.
On the flip side, the fewer elements your eyes have to take in and your brain has to deal with, the quicker you understands the page and therefore, the easier the page is to use.
The more white space on the page, the brighter the page is and the brighter the page is, the more your pupils shrink. If you can remember back to your school biology (or photography lessons), the smaller your pupil, the greater your focal depth and the greater your focal depth, the easier it is for you to focus on things and therefore read the page.
