The use of white space in a web page layout is vital.
There has to be a refined balance of screen space used versus white space.
White space, though empty, is still an important part of the design of a website.
There's no way to build a website that will utilize every piece of valuable screen space for every monitor in service.
You can determine how much screen space is available for a given user via Javascript, but building an entire website for every different screen sizes just isn't going to happen.
Take the lowest resolution you estimate is used by most people today as a point of beginning.
Our company doesn't build anything greater than 1,000 pixels wide, leaving room for the scrollbar.
The width comes in just under 1024 pixels wide on our sites, setting our norm for our lowest resolution.
Once you've determined the resolution you're going to build to specifications, you can start using the available space within that area.
Therefore all screens above the lowest resolution you've chosen will have more white space-which is acceptable to most people.
You can build a website based on a percentage of the user's screen width, although our company uses a specified width.
Personally, building a website based on a percentage isn't good in the long run (actually never).
Users with small screens have the content of your site all crammed together.
Users with a large screen will have to read across their 22" plus monitor to view all your content.
Using every single pixel within your valuable screen real estate just isn't going to be possible, especially if your content changes (which it should to keep your site fresh).
However, you can utilize that same area with the most important parts of content you want your user to see while keeping it organized and easy to follow.
I've seen plenty of websites who think it's slick to have the entire website in an 800 x 500 box, giving the content an even smaller area in which to be displayed.
Either the content is written to fit within that small area, or a scrollbar is inserted within that small area for users to see the rest of the content.
That way they don't have to mess up this perfect, little 800 x 500 design.
Ridiculous.
Content is a variable and will constantly change on any site.
Along with choosing your lowest resolution width to build, you also have to determine where you think most users' fold will be on their screen.
If you're building for a 1024px width, then it would probably be safe to assume the height would be around 768 px.
Consider the toolbars and menus at the top of the browser that the user is going to access and you're looking at maybe 500 px height of area before the user has to start scrolling.
Your most valuable screen real estate is now determined to be 1024 x 500.
You could try to fill every pixel possible within that area with something other than white space, but things could get congested quickly.
I think most users would rather see what's important, in an easy-to-read fashion.
White space can be a good thing if it's used in the right places (i.
e.
spacing between lines of text or padding around a block of content).
Mobile websites require the same kind of thought process, except working with a much smaller area.
I don't think having to scroll is as much of a nuisance as it is with scrolling on a desktop because the user can just use their fingers to get where they want to faster than using a mouse and arrow.
Our mobile sites (especially iPhone-compatible ones) do a great job of displaying the information to the user without having to scroll at all, or very little.
Huge blocks of white space in your programming code is annoying and the source of many headaches.
You don't have to use up every piece of white space on every line, but formatting your code and indenting will go a long way for other developers to read and comprehend what goes with what.
Opening an element and hitting the ENTER key 10 times before writing your next line of code is similar to counting cards- it's not illegal, but frowned upon by many.
There has to be a refined balance of screen space used versus white space.
White space, though empty, is still an important part of the design of a website.
There's no way to build a website that will utilize every piece of valuable screen space for every monitor in service.
You can determine how much screen space is available for a given user via Javascript, but building an entire website for every different screen sizes just isn't going to happen.
Take the lowest resolution you estimate is used by most people today as a point of beginning.
Our company doesn't build anything greater than 1,000 pixels wide, leaving room for the scrollbar.
The width comes in just under 1024 pixels wide on our sites, setting our norm for our lowest resolution.
Once you've determined the resolution you're going to build to specifications, you can start using the available space within that area.
Therefore all screens above the lowest resolution you've chosen will have more white space-which is acceptable to most people.
You can build a website based on a percentage of the user's screen width, although our company uses a specified width.
Personally, building a website based on a percentage isn't good in the long run (actually never).
Users with small screens have the content of your site all crammed together.
Users with a large screen will have to read across their 22" plus monitor to view all your content.
Using every single pixel within your valuable screen real estate just isn't going to be possible, especially if your content changes (which it should to keep your site fresh).
However, you can utilize that same area with the most important parts of content you want your user to see while keeping it organized and easy to follow.
I've seen plenty of websites who think it's slick to have the entire website in an 800 x 500 box, giving the content an even smaller area in which to be displayed.
Either the content is written to fit within that small area, or a scrollbar is inserted within that small area for users to see the rest of the content.
That way they don't have to mess up this perfect, little 800 x 500 design.
Ridiculous.
Content is a variable and will constantly change on any site.
Along with choosing your lowest resolution width to build, you also have to determine where you think most users' fold will be on their screen.
If you're building for a 1024px width, then it would probably be safe to assume the height would be around 768 px.
Consider the toolbars and menus at the top of the browser that the user is going to access and you're looking at maybe 500 px height of area before the user has to start scrolling.
Your most valuable screen real estate is now determined to be 1024 x 500.
You could try to fill every pixel possible within that area with something other than white space, but things could get congested quickly.
I think most users would rather see what's important, in an easy-to-read fashion.
White space can be a good thing if it's used in the right places (i.
e.
spacing between lines of text or padding around a block of content).
Mobile websites require the same kind of thought process, except working with a much smaller area.
I don't think having to scroll is as much of a nuisance as it is with scrolling on a desktop because the user can just use their fingers to get where they want to faster than using a mouse and arrow.
Our mobile sites (especially iPhone-compatible ones) do a great job of displaying the information to the user without having to scroll at all, or very little.
Huge blocks of white space in your programming code is annoying and the source of many headaches.
You don't have to use up every piece of white space on every line, but formatting your code and indenting will go a long way for other developers to read and comprehend what goes with what.
Opening an element and hitting the ENTER key 10 times before writing your next line of code is similar to counting cards- it's not illegal, but frowned upon by many.