Updated: July 22, 2025 By: Marios
The quality of your web design has a direct impact on your brand's success.
Your website plays a crucial role in positioning your company in a positive light, helping your target audience see that they can trust your brand to deliver high-quality, reliable solutions tailored to their needs. Moreover, your site's appearance and performance automatically impact web visitors' purchase intent, essentially determining your ability to convert new customers and retain existing ones.
However, even though most business owners comprehend the importance of web design, they still fail to invest in UX. That's a huge mistake (and loss), especially considering that every $1 invested in UX generates $100 in returns. Moreover, research suggests that consumers won't tolerate poor UX experiences, proving the importance of customer-centric and user-friendly design.
So, how can you improve UX across your website? Well, one way to do it would be to enrich your design with white space — the unsung hero of great UX.
What is Whitespace?
White space — also referred to as negative space — is any part of a design (whether digital or physical) that is purposefully left blank.
One of the most common misconceptions about whitespace is that it's an absence of elements. However, that's not true. Instead, it's a strategic usage of negative space, which improves user experience.
In web design, white space can come in multiple forms. For starters, it can be white (as its name suggests). However, white space can also consist of a color or image, or any other type of background that surrounds and pads a high-value design element.
Additionally, some resources classify white space as macro and micro white space, meaning that it can either separate major web design elements or be used within those elements themselves (like the spaces and line breaks within a block of text).
Benefits of White Space in UX Design
The fascinating fact about white space and its role in improving UX design is that its benefits are often overlooked. While many designers understand its importance from a theoretical standpoint, they fail to comprehend how proper use affects web visitors.
So, what are the benefits of white space in UX design? Well, there are several. So, let's go over them one by one.
Contribution to Website Aesthetic Appeal
Research from Google suggests that most people prefer simple and predictable websites. Minimalism is one of the easiest methods to accomplish that desired simplicity and familiarity.
Reducing the number of elements on a website and filling users' screens with “empty” space is one of the most straightforward methods for creating a simplistic, cohesive digital brand presence, all the while making it uncomplicated for visitors to find what they need.
Reduction of Clutter and Cognitive Load
A wealth of information on your website is a great thing. Unless, of course, you overdo it.
When it comes to processing large amounts of data, most people start to experience cognitive overload at some point. The consequences of this mental state include paralysis, anger, or passivity, all of which can substantially reduce consumers' purchase intent or harm their perception of your brand.
So, don't hesitate to incorporate negative space into your web design. It can help remove unnecessary clutter from your landing pages. It can provide web visitors with opportunities to rest and process data before moving on to something new. Plus, it can create an overall more enjoyable browsing experience that doesn't feel like an informational minefield.
Website Accessibility
The point of investing in a website is to maximize your ability to reach a large audience. But is your UX design detracting from your ability to engage potential clients?
According to data from the Web Accessibility Initiative, 94.8% of all homepages failed to meet basic accessibility guidelines.
These poor design decisions didn't just make it more difficult for individuals with disabilities to access and interact with online information. In many cases, they made it equally frustrating for fully-abled persons to browse these websites. Plus, they were detrimental to SEO and damaged brand reputations.
What's interesting is that incorporating white space in UX design significantly improves site accessibility by making it easier for users to navigate pages, identify relevant page elements, and interact with blocks of text.
Impact on Readability
Negative space can also make it easier (and faster) for web visitors to read the textual info on your website.
By providing visual breathing room between lines, it reduces clutter, guides user attention, and allows visitors the rest they need to process the info they've consumed without creating a feeling of being overwhelmed.
Establishing Visual Hierarchy and Directing User Attention
What's the best way to help high-value website elements stand out? Without a doubt, it's surrounding them with negative space.
Essentially, white space communicates relevance. It shows that your web content holds information that can help web visitors solve their pain points. Plus, it actively directs web users' attention toward high-value areas that can draw them into (or move them through) the sales funnel.
Consider the most effective UX design practices. You'll find that successful brands always surround CTA buttons and value propositions with white space.
This simple design tactic allows them to boost click-through and conversion rates. Moreover, it guarantees that web visitors never overlook these crucial elements of the sales funnel.
Mobile Responsiveness Impact
Finally, when exploring the benefits of white space in UX design, it's essential to mention mobile responsiveness.
Nowadays, 62.54% of all global website traffic comes from mobile devices. So, it's not just crucial for brands to deliver pleasant browsing experiences on smaller screens; potential customers will likely have their first brand interaction through a mobile device.
White space elevates the mobile user experience in several ways.
It improves tap accuracy through spacing. It elevates readability and accessibility on the smaller screens. It prevents visual fatigue and communicates content hierarchy. Plus, when supported by proper technical web development, it might even reduce load times and make a website feel faster.
Brands Using White Space Right
Now that you understand how white space benefits website UX design, let's explore some examples of brands employing it in the right way.
Somewhere
If you look at the homepage of this remote staffing agency, you'll see that it pads its most powerful value proposition with a ton of negative space.
Instead of using a header image or video, Somewhere employs its single-color background to ensure that its promise of helping “companies save 80% on payroll by building worldwide teams” stands out to and resonates with its target audience.
Seedlip
Check out the Seedlip ecommerce store. You'll notice that the brand offers several types of products.
To ensure that shoppers understand the differences between the options, Seedlip utilizes negative space in a way that separates different content blocks.
This doesn't just create a physical separation between different product options. It also encourages shoppers to consider each solution before moving on to the next one.
RE Cost Seg
RE Cost Seg is a brand that operates in the real estate cost segregation industry. It’s one where customer trust is a critical prerequisite for customer conversions. That's why it bases so much of its online presence on social proof.
However, instead of allowing customer reviews and stats to get lost among clutter, this business uses negative space to create a visual separation between different content blocks.
This UX design tactic encourages web visitors to read each testimonial. Plus, it prevents them from moving from one piece of social proof to the next without first processing the information.
Twigs Paper
We mentioned that the majority of all internet traffic happens on mobile devices.
Knowing that people are likely to browse its ecommerce store on a smaller screen, Twigs Paper uses white space to make the shopping experience more user-friendly.
Note how the brand adds 403 pixels of padding between each product card. This effectively prevents web visitors from clicking the wrong button. Plus, it provides the right amount of breathing room for each featured solution, maximizing the chances of web visitors engaging with it and adding it to their carts.
Cowboy
Sometimes, when selling complex solutions, convincing your audience that they're the perfect choice can be challenging.
To avoid this conversion obstacle, Cowboy uses negative space to visually separate the topmost benefits its ebikes offer.
Instead of simply listing standout features, this brand uses UX design to ensure shoppers genuinely comprehend (and remember) that Cowboy bikes come with theft detection features, automatic power assistance, and superior post-purchase customer support.
Final Thoughts
Removing website clutter and replacing it with white space is a great way to create an aesthetically pleasing online presence. It's also a stellar tactic for improving user experience. Plus, it's a proven strategy for elevating conversion rates.
So, if you're not already doing it, consider opportunities to incorporate more white space into your web design.
If you're unsure that it's working, make the design changes incrementally. That way, you can test how they affect your conversions. Additionally, this course of action will allow you to catch any potential drawbacks before you've made substantial changes to your digital presence.
