Whitespace - the most powerful design principle of them all

Whitespace is a very powerful technique. It's a lot more than just making things look pretty. Many luxury brands use white space to create a sense of exclusivity and style.

A few pointers to start off:

• White Space is also known as whitespace - the same thing
• White space is also known as negative space
• Your space doesn't need to be the colour white

Grouping

By adding spacing you can group elements. How much more organised does that look?

The power of white space

By removing one navigation item, look what difference we get. how much more readable is the last example?

Emphasis on the block with the white space

On the right-hand side, your eye immediately goes to the block with the more apparent white space

Examples of websites with good white space

Just this week Hey.com was launched. It's Basecamp's new email product. The website and product look great. Look at how the white space forces you to do nothing else but concentrate on the headline.

Good use of white space. Note the "white space" is actually pink. It's a well thought out site and the feeling of qualty feel comes from the white space.

Look at how the horse rider is looking at the call to action. When us human see people looking at something, our attention is instictively to look at what they are looking at.

With great power comes great responsibility - use white space carefully!