White Space: Not Just Stylish — Necessary

A powerful, creative tool

White space (negative space) is a fundamental part of how we guide users, reduce overwhelm, and ensure cognitive accessibility. It has been a powerful, creative tool for artists throughout history, used not just as “empty” background but as an active part of the composition. For example, white space in asian ink painting represents emptiness, air, water, or mist, inviting the viewer to imagine what isn’t shown.

Sesshu Toyo uses large areas of empty space to contrast highly detailed brushwork. Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man uses white space to isolate the figure and emphasise proportion. Paul Rand and Saul Bass use white space to create striking logos and layouts. For example, the FedEx logo uses white space to create a subtle arrow. It is therefore clearly instrinsic to pleasing design, and one that needs to be carefully considered in web page creation.

Apple’s use of white space is a masterclass in artistic design principles—balance, emphasis, simplicity, and flow—that creates a visually elegant and highly usable website. It also significantly enhances accessibility by improving readability, focus, and reducing cognitive load.

Harmony is achieved through a balanced layout. For example, content elements—like product images, headlines, and calls to action—are spaced with generous margins and padding, ensuring nothing feels cramped or overwhelming. This balance creates a harmonious flow that naturally guides the viewer’s eye through the page.

Emphasis is enforced by surrounding key elements (e.g., the latest iPhone image or product headline) with ample white space. The white space acts like a frame, drawing attention directly to the focal content without distractions. Simplicity is achieved via a minimalist aesthetic, with plenty of negative space. This reinforces Apple’s brand identity of clean, modern, and elegant design. The white space removes clutter, making the interface feel sophisticated and approachable. Finally, rhythm and flow occurs naturally, alternating between text-heavy and image-heavy sections, which helps users scan and digest content easily

White space enhance accessibility through improved readability, clear visual hierarchy, better focus for screen readers and less confusion over content for screen readers to access. Places for Apple to improve include darker contrast on focus indicators, continued emphasis on skip links to navigate taller pages, and overlay colour contrasts, even though the white space surrounds it.

Here are some basic recommendations for you

Line height: At least 1.5x the font size.

Paragraph spacing: At least 2x the font size between paragraphs.

Letter spacing: At least 0.12x the font size.

Word spacing: At least 0.16x the font size.

These standards improve readability, especially for users with dyslexia, ADHD, or low vision. Use white space to visually group elements, create hierarchy, and separate interactive zones. Don’t “fill” every corner — allow space to work as a navigational cue. On smaller screens, scale margins and padding responsively to maintain comfort.

Finally, the most innovative websites today use scroll animation responsibly to elevate the journey, apply the Golden Ratio for a natural rhythm that feels human, and embrace white space that breathes — while complying with WCAG 2.1 guidelines for spacing and readability. This intersection of aesthetics and accessibility isn’t just good design — it’s great UX. It tells users: this space was built with you in mind.

Head over to 'Part I: Scroll Animations, the Golden Ratio, White Space — and the Accessibility That Makes It Work', to read about the trend for scroll animations. Or, 'Part II: The Golden Ratio: Harmony That Feels Right — and Works Responsively' for a deeper look at how we apply this age old ratio!