Whitespace: The Workhorse of Design
What is whitespace?
Have you ever looked at a data visualization so crammed with information it left you feeling overwhelmed? That’s because it was missing something called “whitespace”.
Whitespace, or negative space, is the space between elements in a design, such as margins, padding, and space between text and/or images. It is unfortunately very often overlooked by non-designers, but it is crucial for a successful design. Without whitespace, your information simply gets lost and is rendered basically useless. By leveraging whitespace within the framework of visual design thinking, qualitative researchers can significantly enhance the readability, aesthetics, and overall impact of their qualitative data visualizations and design.
Why is white space so important?
Visual design thinking emphasizes understanding your audience and their needs. When it comes to qualitative data, you're dealing with human experiences, emotions, and narratives – also empathy. Your visualization and designs should guide viewers through these stories, not drown them in data. Viewers need breathing room to give them a moment to distill and reflect upon the information you just provided. Whitespace gives the eye a place to rest when looking at visual design. It also acts as a glue that holds your entire design together. It promotes balance and harmony and guides viewers toward the focal points of your design.
NOTE: While it’s known as a whitespace or negative space, whitespace can be of any color, texture, pattern or a background image.
How can Whitespace help Qualitative Data Design?
1) Enhancing Readability and Comprehension: As with any type of reporting, readability is crucial. Whitespace around text and data prevents visual clutter, making it easier for viewers to process information. By creating a space of separation between text, images, data, etc., researchers allow their viewers to focus on one bit of information at a time, reducing cognitive load, increasing viewer focus, and enhancing comprehension. If you’ve read my other blog posts you’ve seen this graphic before, but I like to use it to show how whitespace can really impact the other elements in your design.
Source: https://www.digital.ink/blog/importance-white-space/
2) Creating Visual Hierarchy: Visual hierarchy refers to the arrangement of elements in a way that signifies their importance (You can read more about that here). Strategically planning how much whitespace you will use can help establish this hierarchy by differentiating between primary and secondary information, as shown below.
Larger margins or more space around key insights can draw attention to them, while lesser space around supplementary details can de-emphasize their importance, and guide viewers through your qualitative data’s narrative.
3) Balancing Visual Elements: A balanced design feels stable and aesthetically pleasing. Whitespace contributes to this balance by providing breathing room for elements.
In qualitative data visualization and design, where charts, images, icons, and text are often placed onto one slide or report page, whitespace ensures that each element has its own space, preventing overcrowding and creating an ordered layout, that is easy for viewers to follow and comprehend, as shown in the example below:
Putting Whitespace into Action
So, how can qualitative researchers utilize whitespace? We’ve talked about why what whitespace is and why it’s important for qualitative researchers to consider when designing their data, but how do you incorporate whitespace when designing your data and reporting?
Here are some ways and tips to leverage whitespace in qualitative data visualization:
1) Prioritize Content: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; the data comes first. Identify those key insights of your data and plan to allocate more whitespace around them. By leaving ample space between data elements, such as text, charts, images, icons, etc., you prevent visual overload and allow viewers to process those key insights. This prioritization helps viewers understand where to focus their attention first.
2) Consistent Margins and Padding: Use consistent margins and padding to create a clean and organized look. Inconsistent spacing can distract viewers and undermine the clarity of the visualization.
That being said -> don’t push your data designs to the edge of the page or slide. Leave ample whitespace in the margins to help the data ‘breathe’. Luckily a lot of the programs we use in qualitative research reporting have ample white space padding already programmed into the system for us (Hurray!) But, if you are not sure whether you’ve left enough whitespace in your overall design, use this tip from the art-making world -> Squint (or if you are like me and already have terrible vision, just take off your glasses). Where does your eye go when your squint? Does it look cluttered when you squint? Then you may need some more whitespace.
3) Use Whitespace to Group Related Elements: Whitespace can act as a visual cue to group related elements together. This can help viewers to understand the connections within the data, as well as assist them in quickly navigating the information.
4) Avoid Overcrowding: Ahh, back to our Friends meme. This is probably the number one mistake that non-designers tend to make. Resist that temptation to fill every inch of the canvas with data. Overcrowding leads to visual fatigue and diminishes the effectiveness of your visualization. Instead, embrace minimalism and let your data breathe. Your data will have much more of a memorable impact if you use whitespace, rather than throwing all the information at your viewer all at once.
5) Test and Iterate: Design, like qualitative researcher, is an iterative process. Test your designs with others to gather feedback. Adjust spacing based on their input to optimize readability and engagement.
Whitespace as Your Guide
Think of whitespace as the breathing room in your qualitative data visualizations and designs. By embracing whitespace, you reduce potential cognitive overloads and help establish hierarchy, therefore enhancing clarity, and create a visually compelling experience for your audience. So, the next time you're designing a qualitative data visualization, remember – sometimes, less is truly more.
Source: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-power-of-white-space
Whitespace is good. Use it!
