Whitespace is the area between visual elements of your website. Some of you may know the term negative space. This is a similar concept. In other words, it’s the space between sentences, the space between paragraphs, the space between the header art and your next paragraph. It’s every part of your page that is empty.

And that emptiness is important. In fact, you WANT empty parts of your page.

Why?

Several reasons.

Ease of Readability
Which of these two paragraphs look easier to read? Better yet: which one do you want to bother to read?

The one on the right is a little easier on the eyes and brain, isn’t it?

You can cram more into column A. But why? Because you want it “above the fold” or some other hyped up reason? Forget it. Make it easy to read. Otherwise, most people will ignore it.

Image/Branding
Upscale or luxury businesses tends to go with a “less is more” or minimalist look. If that is your product, service, and target demographic, then the more you cram onto a web page or newsletter the more…not-so-upscale…you will look.

Compare these two images:

We didn’t do anything fancy with either of these. But the 2nd one is going to appeal to a luxury-minded client while the 1st one will not. Now ask us how many of our clients insist on something like #1 when it comes to their website. While telling us they are trying to appeal to upscale clientele.

This is not to say never use text. This is not to say minimalist is better. It is to say: “know your audience” and “remember your objectives”. There is a time and place for lots of text. Additionally, there are ways to make all that text pleasing to the eye. These are important things to keep in mind as you look at your website.

Look at all your site’s components. Is your site header squished down into your body text? If you have a content area on the left and navigation on the right, how much space is between it? Is all the navigation squashed together or is it spaced out nicely?

Take a look at what this site would look like if we decided that for some reason, everything needed to be squished together to be “above the fold”.

And yet, people do this to their website all the time. And then wonder why no one wants to sit and read their blog posts even though they are quite helpful and well-written. Or, they wonder why no one is shopping in their store when there is so much crammed onto a page that it is just overwhelming for their site visitors.

It used to be said that website visitors don’t like to scroll. Today, a lot of website owners, creators, and marketers are learning otherwise. It’s all situation-specific. If you do write, don’t just write well, but make it easy for your visitors to read too. Remember your friend, whitespace.

WordPress is open source (free) software used to run websites. Most people think of it as blogging software, but it does so much more. We can set up shopping carts, special members-only areas, image galleries, contact forms, or just use it for a plain website without a blog or special interactivity.

What WordPress has is

• the ability to, fairly easily, do fancier things with your site (like add blogs, contact forms, image galleries, etc)
• the ability for website owners to maintain their websites without needing Dreamweaver, and knowing little to no HTML
• the ability to change it via web browser, so the site can be updated anywhere there is Internet access
• the ability to change the look of the site fairly quickly though pre-built templates that are easily installed.
• the ability to update navigation site-wide when new pages are added

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I bet you figured that since you have a website, it probably works fine on all devices. But have you checked? And where and how would you?

A knowledgeable web developer will try and create sites that are cross-platform. In other words: viewable and functional in most browsers. I say most, because we can not realistically test in every one in existence. At least, not if we want to do anything else with our time. And there are many that most people have never heard of beyond what I think of as The Big 5: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari.

All web browsers, because they are made by different companies and different people, interpret the code used to make a web page differently. The more fancy the site, the more we have to do to make the site cross-platform. A knowledgeable person will do their best to work the code so a site will function as much as possible, and look as good as possible, among lots of browsers. We also consider technology beyond your standard computer too, such as smart phones and iPads. We also think about your visitors who are blind and are using screen readers that tell them what is on the page.

Due to the way browsers are made and technology evolves, a web page may even be interpreted differently between different versions of the same browser too. For example, there is a difference in how we create sites for Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 8.

This is the difference between having a site done by a professional and having it done by a friend, child, or other person that does this as a hobby. Generally, the amateur has not learned that their code does not operate the same way in every system. They don’t know to test to make sure what they are creating is cross-platform. This is not bad per se. Not for a hobbyist site. But for your business, it could be disastrous. What happens if a sizable chunk of your audience is using a browser that your site is broken in?

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Many people tend to feel a little lost when it comes to being a website owner. They don’t know what to do. They may feel overwhelmed. They may feel completely out of their element.

So what do you do as a website owner? What is the website owner’s role in the creation (and maintenance) of a website?

Share Your Vision
What are your goals? Where do you want to go? What image do you want to represent? This is important when you first start making a site, and must be kept in mind as you continue regular maintenance. Make sure your decisions are always in line with your goals. If you don’t know what you want or where you are going, your website will probably reflect that. And your visitors won’t care for it.

Always Update
Your site is never “finished”. There is no such thing as “done” in web design. GOOD websites are always updated and have the latest information about an organization. New photos, new written content, improvements to site navigation, SEO improvements, and so on. So always update your site. Which is similar to…

Stay Involved
You may create or maintain a website in partnership with your web designer. Don’t drop it in the web designer’s hands and forget them. Always stay involved. Which reminds me that you need to…

Communicate
Share ideas and feedback with your web designer. Ask questions. Learn the lingo. A good web designer isn’t going to laugh at you for not knowing all the answers. That’s OUR job, not yours. My doctor doesn’t laugh at me for not having all the answers either. Neither does my plumber. Also, you probably know your industry better than we do. You know your target demographic as well. You interact with your customers and we probably don’t. So your feedback on what we do is very helpful because we don’t have your perspective. But remember, to be a good communicator, you also need to…

Listen
Pay attention to what your web designer is telling you. It’s probably important. Personally, I’ve been a professional web designer for 11 years. If I tell my clients why something they want is a bad idea, I’m saying it for good reason. I have long experience in this field making websites for a wide variety of industries. Admittedly, it can be very frustrating when I advise a client that a feature they’ve requested may be counter to their goals and they dismiss the feedback. To be fair, you all know your customers better than I do. But I’ve also spent a long time studying how your customers are most likely to respond to what they see and hear online. I’ve read countless studies. I’ve stayed current with trends. Part of my job is to know when to trust your judgement or when to go with mine instead. Let’s brainstorm alternatives, examine scenarios, or even do some testing to see what actually happens when visitors are presented with a certain feature. As I tell all my clients though: ultimately, it’s your site and dime. If you want it and insist, I’ll make it.

Keep Learning
Read about doing business online. Learn about best practices for websites and your industry on the web. Keep asking questions. And remember that the Internet always changes. The steps you took for SEO may change tomorrow. Always, always ask questions and keep learning.

Related Posts

• The Right Tool for the Right Job
• It’s Still YOUR website! Or Is It?
• It’s Not Free Advertising
• Finding, Hiring & Working with Web Designers series, Part 1

A Book to Read: Website Owner’s Manual

A lot of website owners, and even some web designers, ignore a very important demographic: the mobile user. How user-friendly is your site to those viewing from mobile devices?

For those who don’t have a phone or other handheld that allows them to surf the web, this is an important consideration that is easily overlooked. For those of us who turn to our phones for just about everything, it is a fact we’re reminded of by every other website we visit.

Think no one is going to visit your site from their phone? Think again. Lots of visitors do, and in growing numbers. There are a lot of websites out there that are astonishingly behind the times.

Depending on your site, needs, and audience, having a mobile-ready website may be easy or may involve a lot of extra work. You may be able to just use your existing website just fine. Or you may need to make a mobile version of your site that easily accessed by phones and handhelds.

Not sure what to look at to determine if you have a mobile ready website? Here are a few things for website owners and web designers to keep in mind when creating or updating your site.

Flash
Is your website in Flash or are you planning Flash? Not to belabor the “Flash is evil” issue, but it is an important point to bear in mind. Most phones don’t show Flash. Your audience using iPhones certainly won’t see it and the iPhone still dominates the mobile marketplace. Only parts of your site use Flash? This might be ok. Just make sure it isn’t involved in anything critical like your website’s navigation.

Navigation
Speaking of navigation, some of that won’t work so hot either. Some tricks to handle lots of pages in the navigation, and fancy navigation effects, may or may not show on some mobile devices. Consider adding links at the bottom and top of pages that allow visitors to jump up and down a page, and easily move back and forth from navigation to main content.

Text Size
Does your text adjust depending on the size the page is viewed at? Or is it stuck at the same size no matter what device is being used to see the site?

Page Length
Long pages with lots of scrolling tend to annoy visitors, and even more so with the mobile surfer. Consider “back to top” links strategically placed down the page. Or see if you can break a page up into several pages.

Page Size
How long does the page take to download? Mobile devices take a while to download websites and the bigger your pages, the longer your (impatient) visitor waits. I’m sure by now you are all familiar with the Back button? Phones have them too. Lots of images and various other factors can increase your page size and your visitors can give up and hit Back.

These are just some of the things you’ll want to look into. Your best bet is to just start viewing your site on as many phones as you can. When you see friends and family with theirs, ask if you can take a look at your site for a moment. Make note of the make and model phone you are using and any problems you see with the site. Another option is mobile device emulators. Also, the site MobiReady allows you to enter your website and see how well it would perform for various phones.

An experienced web designer may also be able to look at your site and let you know what will and won’t work for mobile devices. Just be prepared to either make a mobile version of your site or overhaul it entirely. Not everyone will need only a few simple corrections to get their site ready for their mobile visitors.

Further Reading:

Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, Basic Guidelines, W3C Recommendation 29 July 2008