Give Me My Web Space
By Molly E. Holzschlag
I'd like to tell a story about the New York apartments of my childhood. My aunts typically had every piece of furniture brought over from the old country jammed into the place. On top of that they'd have lace doilies, and on top of those, knick-knacks and do-dads and all kinds of stuff. I always felt horribly tense in this environment. I couldn't move around; it seemed as though I would literally suffocate in the clutter. It wasn't that my aunts weren't clean—goodness knows they were immaculate, but they just had so much jammed into an already small space.
Many Web pages are like my aunts' houses—crowded with do-dads and knick-knacks. As a designer, you can choose to make your pages light, if appropriate. Simplicity in Web design can be a very potent technique. This doesn't mean you have to restrict yourself, but that you should place each element with a purpose in mind. (See "
Online" for some example sites that have used space in the right and wrong ways.)
If you have a tiny room with no windows, how do you make it look bigger? One thing you can do is paint it white, or another light color. You can also remove all the stuff and furnish it sparsely, simply. Here are a few ways to make a Web "room" appear more spacious:
- Avoid adding elements that aren't necessary to the page's content.
- Balance the size and weight of page elements.
- Make sure there's ample white space between text and images.
