You may not remember the great Volkswagen ads from the
1960s, but trust us: they were great. And the thing is, 50 years later, they
can still teach us about great design.
On the web, we’ve become obsessed with
using up every bit of real estate we’re offered, and in theory it makes sense.
We’ve all got a lot of content we want to share, and a lot of things we produce
that we’re proud of, and a lot of things we want other people to see, but that
usually only succeeds in making a website cluttered and impossible to navigate.
Whitespace (that is, plain, unmarked space) does a lot of good in design.
Take, for example, Volkswagen’s genius “Think Small” ad.
There’s a picture of a VW Beetle, but a very small one. There’s a tag line, and
some explainer text that was common in 1960’s print ads, but that’s it. Mostly,
there’s whitespace. A lot of
whitespace. People said it was crazy, but it worked. And it still does. Here’s
why:
- Unmarked space stands out and draws your
attention. Then, it pushes your attention to what is on the page. In the case of the VW ad, the small picture of the
Beetle draws your eye, and then you’re compelled to read the text on the page.
On a website, it might be your logo, or a call to action, or just a simple tag
line, but it will get noticed. - Clutter indicates a lower value. Think of it
like a front yard. If a yard is so cluttered that you can’t see any grass
growing, or it doesn’t look well maintained, that house likely has a
perceptible lowered value. A cluttered website can indicate the same thing.
Whitespace seems to add value to your online real estate. - Whitespace gives you staying power. While we
can’t guarantee that your website will be talked about 50 years later, good
design and good implementation of whitespace might help your business last
longer. - When you aren’t competing with yourself for
attention, people will be more likely to spend time on your site. Imagine
having a visitor in your home. You can ask if they’d like coffee, tea, soda, to
watch the football game or some other show, a seat on the couch or in the
recliner, and on and on, and you’ll likely only push them out the door.
However, if you give them a choice between two things, you’ll probably get some
interaction.
Are you worried that your website is cluttered? Do you want
to make whitespace your friend? We’ll give you a free website evaluation to put
your mind at ease.
