Web Designer Freelance Interview Question:

Tell me what is white space and how does it affect content on the web? What are some of the principles of "gestalt"?

Submitted by: Muhammad

White space in graphic design is any area left intentionally blank. It doesn't have to be white. Both in web design and other media white space can be efficiently used to visually separate or group elements, to draw attention to a specific element, to reinforce the content layout or grid. Sometimes, white space is also used purely aesthetically to create visually interesting compositions.

Gestalt principles are part of the theory of visual perception. They deal with the mind's ability to "see" things that are not explicitly visible, by subconsciously combining shapes, finding similarities, completing compositions of physically disconnected elements. A few of the principles commonly used in design are:

☛ Similarity - the human mind perceives elements with similar features (either in color, shape, size or combination of the three) as related, meaningfully connected or grouped together. This is especially useful in navigation systems design and application toolbars;

☛ Proximity - similarly to the similarity principle, elements which are placed close to each other are considered grouped, related, or parts of a whole. This is a building principle of layout design. It's especially important when designing pages with large amounts of varied content (like the home page of a news website or application)

☛ Closure - when faced with a familiar looking object which is incomplete in its visualisation (parts of the image are missing) the mind automatically "completes the picture" or fills in the blanks and effectively sees the image as if it was fully displayed. This is a principle often used in logo design. Using the closure principle can make an element more interesting to look at (as the user's mind "works" to complete the element) which makes the design more memorable;

☛ Figure-ground relation is the tendency to mentally separate "objects" from "backgrounds" based on combination of color, shape and past experience. When properly used in graphic design, this principle directs the user's attention to important elements of the composition;

☛ Common fate - elements moving synchronously in tandem are often conceived as grouped or as parts of a single object. Common fate can be useful in interaction design;

☛ Continuity - the mind's ability to see connections and follow one path or another based on similarities and to follow lines past their end points. This principle can be used in logo design to generate interest. It can also be used when building layouts or compositions to make them look as a single tidy object, rather than a bunch of cluttered elements.
Submitted by: Muhammad