What Is The "Good" Use of White Space?
A discussion in an award producer forum about a common element in a significant number of award presenters award criteria's-does the production make good use of white space or words to that effect, prompted research and this white paper.
The question addresses several other questions like white space use in the rendering of web pages (HTML), the layout of a web page, the mechanics of web page rendering and differences in gender perception of online viewing and a learning experience which may result.
Brain Functions
Proficient performance (learning and comprehension) is achieved with a number of key factors, one of which is pattern recognition. Holyoak (1991) proposed a contingency hypothesis for expert's in which they learn and perform in whatever way is most efficient. Although most of our readers would not consider themselves an expert, the way the brain processes information in men and women, is quite different, at least where the anatomy of the brain is concerned.[1]
While men think more with their gray matter, and women think more with the white, this does not affect intellectual performance, but may help explain differences of opinion as to the question, what is good use of white space.
Through an emerging consensus of Recovery techniques and procedures for those who are addicted to alcohol and other substances, we also now think we know, that an answer to the question of what is the good use of white space is affected by biological factors and the levels of chemicals in the brain; learned experiences which are permanently stored information in brain receptors; and environmental factors in which we learn vicariously, by following those around us to do (or not to do) what they do, and then practice those behaviors until we "learn" them.[2]
Relearning or Reinforcement
User Interface Update has reviewed and summarized most of the usability-related research in a prior year since 1983, which we shall discuss briefly after an introduction to making an assessment of our web productions. Impressions of what we see and read online, are not just the first impressions, but at each stage during our viewing experiences based upon what we have learned previously, environmental and biological factors of the individual viewer and what we know think we know as to how genders process information and learning. The stages our brain goes through in assessing web page speed, look, feel, the information presented, functionality, accessibility, stickability and consistency.[3] This process for most seems to be easy or an unconscious effort, depending upon pattern recognition which is permanently stored in our brain.
While all of the usability-related research summarized in Usability News relates directly or indirectly to white space, there are several noted below which have a greater impact within the awards community and we who build web pages for fun and or pleasure.
Eye tracking studies show that users tend to look first at text, not images with a margin or nearly two to one favoring test.
Put the most important information on a Web page at the middle-top because that text will be seen first and the text at the bottom of a page is rarely seen.
Use larger point or scale sizes, sans serif fonts, right and left panels for links, because users will investigate areas outside the center, when searching for a specific link or for the first time.
Design for a screen resolution of 800x600 pixel resolution, which at present is the dominant resolution of users.
Do a design, which encourages either linking or successful searching on the first attempt because about 60% will continue to browse the site (only 20% of "searchers" continue to browse) and "linkers" are three times more likely to find related (valuable) information.
Design to use 20-point text presented at speeds of about 250 wpm on RSVP-based displays for those who need to read prose text from small displays.
While the conclusions above may not be well known, others are omitted and worthily of your consideration, Usability News is a must read for the serious award presenter or web page producer.[4]
White Space Studies
All of us are familiar with Color Theory definitions, concepts, and design practices such as Color Harmony, Color Context and so forth, as to how they strike subconscious reactions in the end user, if by no other means than through our own experiences. However a study conducted by Usability News, by Barbara Chaparro, J. Ryan Baker, A. Dawn Shaikh, Spring Hull and Laurie Brady may not be so familiar. The study concluded that the manipulation of the margin white space affected both reading speed and comprehension, and resulted in lower satisfaction with the layout and perceived eyestrain when paired with no margins. Interestingly, forty-seven percent of participants chose the margins, optimal leading layout as their favorite, while 50% chose the no margin, sub-optimal leading condition.
Examining user expectations and the location of web objects on web pages is a further study by Michael Bernard suggesting that white space probably does not matter and questions the "Nielsenisation" of the web.[5]
Rendering of Layout and White Space
Perl Programs and Shell Scripts, PL/SQL and other programming languages are said to be the driving force's which initially enable a visitor to decide whether to visit a particular web site or not. It should come as no surprise that good programmers use good programming style to ensure that their source code is easily read and understood by people, which are the only source, which communicates the author's intentions.
The beginning of the program or script is very important. A quick review of the first dozen lines or so should provide the reader with certain critical pieces of information that will help to interpret or modify the code. Liberal and logical use of whitespace is one of the most effective ways of making the programs and scripts more readable, by being more aware of the amount of whitespace between words, between lines and between groups of lines. Perhaps we may learn from good programming practices and have a greater appreciation as to how these works compliment our web pages developments.[6]
[1] Richard Haier, Psychology professor University of California, Irvine.
[2] The Addicted Brain, by Steven E. Hyman
[3] Web Inn, South Africa
[4] Bob Bailey, Ph.D., Chief Scientist for HFI, provides a year-end list of do's and don'ts that have recent research to support them.
[5] An empirical work with Baker, Chaparro and Fernandez.
[6] Jim Skrentny, Deb Deppeler, University of Wisconsin, 1999-2002
Additional Reading:
Hartley, James. (1997) Applying Psychology to Text Design: A Case History. International Forum on Information and Documentation.
Scientific Web Design: 23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies, by Christina Laun
The Best of Eye Track III: In Eyetrack III, we observed 46 people for one hour as their eyes followed mock news websites and real multimedia content.
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