3 ms·
There are no universal rule of design. You ragging about a mention of whitespace, as if whitespace is universally a bad idea, means you are just judging a book
by sph 3y ago
There are no universal
rule of design. You ragging about a mention of whitespace, as if whitespace is universally a bad idea, means you are just judging a book by its cover and only have the cursory understanding of the matter that is typical of most programmers.
Remember, good design is not only what the cool kids do or what FAANG might believe it is. Good design is timeless. Good design is a conversation with the product. Sometimes whitespace is good, sometimes it is not. You saying whitespace is a bad idea is as misinformed as a naive designer saying whitespace is king.
That said, I recommend Refactoring UI, but I recommend more anything on Dieter Rams or the book "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman.
- rcxdude 3y agoGood design is also subjective. More whitespace is trendy and it annoys people who prefer a higher information density (I see the same with code formatting preferences: some people really like to space out code, others like to make it as compact as possible. Most people are somewhere in the middle).
- omnimus 3y agoThere is a thing called user testing. I would say if big company makes design with a lot of whitespace its outcome of a process that had many variations and many tests. So yes its subjective and people probably like it.
- Sakos 3y agoOn the flipside, probably the most common software found and used in businesses everywhere is spreadsheet related, and it's common even in non-business contexts. How many of these applications are adding senseless whitespace everywhere? In the cases I've seen where whitespace is added, it's purely an aesthetic choice and not a UI design choice.