Finding Information on the Web: Does the Amount of Whitespace Really Matter?

It has been a long-held notion that the use of open space or "whitespace" adds not only to the attractiveness of the design of a written publication, but adds to the functionality as well. For example, it has been stated that whitespace plays the crucial role of "directing the viewer's attention to the regions where important information is provided and allowing the global structure of the composition to assume a meaningful configuration" (Mullet & Sano, 1995, p. 126). It is contended that whitespace "gives the eye a place to rest...It can help organize the material on the page. It can tie successive pages together by repetition of identifiable areas" (White, 1974, p. 48).

However, it has been asserted by Web usability researcher Jared Spool that these assumptions should not apply to Web design. That is, in his book, Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide (Spool, et al., 1997), Spool stated that he and his associates found that websites with more whitespace "fared worse in terms of users' success in finding information" than more dense layouts (Spool, et al., 1998).