How much White is too much White?

Hi guys,

We're in the process of finalizing our site (See Who Sells - http://www.seewhosells.com) and have been trying to stick to the "minimalist" approach in terms of color scheme for the duration of design. However upon discussing recently with some of our foreign brain trust, the comment that was repeated is that the page is "too white". I've been trying to argue against this but feel like i'm fighting a losing battle - Google after all is the prime example of a "too white" website that people seem to love.

So, how much white is "too much" white? Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

Majority of people prefer to read black text on white background, in addition to that FACT your website looks awesome. The supposed too much white gives it a professional look in my eyes, but those are just my eyes. Good luck.

 

Your site looks great.

One thing is that I feel the left side menu could do with some BG, to make each link more button-like.

Hope suggestion helps!!

 

Thanks guys, appreciate the kind comments.

We actually originally had a slight gradient on the buttons but it was decided (not by me) to remove it in the name of "cleanliness". I don't mind how it looks but there is always more and more refining to be done

Cheers.

 

Hi Geezer

You can never have too much white (well within reason) look at Ebay and Amazon, lots oif white and clean space . . . less is more, complete perfection isn't when you've added everything you can it's when you've taken away everything you can. Love the look of your site, keep fighting the minimalist corner!!

Ste

 

i believe if you were to change "deal of the weak" on the purplish banner to text instead of image on a text it would look alot cleaner, it sort of looks pixelated.

 

I agree with the consensus here -- it looks great, and if you had to change one thing I'd make it the left-side menu links. Don't bother with images and gradients; you can offset it with a slight colour change using CSS and keep the "weight" down (plus change it with a click any time you want.)


Frank

 

hi...your site looks great as it is....only issue is that the navigation links needs to stand out...put a gradient preferably of grey color..hope this helps...

 

That is a very good point I hadn't really noticed it before and will make sure it is implemented... amazing what can be missed even though you've looked at your own site a million times

 

I like the basic look of the site, but I also feel that the navigation links on the left would look better if they weren't "plain white".

Also, if you did want to cut back a bit on the amount of white, I would suggest darkening the empty, extreme left and right sides of the page, beyond your content margins. Bright areas tend to attract the eye's attention. However, there is nothing over there on the extreme edges of the screen to merit any attention. You might want to consider darkening or coloring those areas a little bit. I wouldn't change the white background that is within the content area though. That looks fine.

 

Couldnt agree more. Definitely dont want to lose the white. As someone else mentioned the text in your buttons looks pixellated and you might want to either use actual text or redo those buttons, but its a minor niggle. I cant actually think of a single great ecommerce site which has other background colors than white!

 

Thanks for the feedback. Wouldn't darkening the extreme edges of the page cause too much of a contrast that would make it harder on the eyes though?

 

I definitely want to have the text on the purple bar redone as it looks pixellated, but on my screen the side navigation bar fonts look very smooth? I'm using Google Chrome, maybe it's a browser difference?

 

Sorry I wasnt very clear. I didn't even notice that the side bar wasn't text. The buttons I was referring to were the search one and the purple bar.

I dont know whether there is any search engine optimisation advantage to having the categories as text links rather than image links, there certainly used to be but that could now be out of date.

(See this thread for more information http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3087826.htm)

 

Your site is nice.

 

Not in my opinion. I actually find the bright white edges to be a bit harder on my eyes. If you want a few examples of what I'm talking about, take a look at the home pages of some of the following sites:

yahoo.com
cnn.com
alexa.com
myspace.com

All of those sites have used something other than bright white for the blank areas to the left and right of their content. In my opinion, this does two things. First, it makes it easier on my eyes. Second, it better focuses my attention on the actual content area, which has a white background in that area. You can compare these to your site, and to other sites with all-white backgrounds, and see which you think is easiest on the eyes, and which tends to attract your eyes to the content better.

Perhaps I should add, I'm viewing with a widescreen notebook computer. My screen resolution is 1440x900 pixels, and those bright edges might appear proportionately larger on my screen than someone viewing at a smaller resolution, or with a more narrow aspect ratio.

 

As great as the feedback is from DP on what they believe you should do next, they also think like you. The best thing to do is test your site and see what your visitors like best.

The reason Google's white works for them is because they tested a lot!! Just because it works for them, it might not necessarily work for you.

You can have people who've read something somewhere from someone that the best colours to use are pink, fusia, and lime all together in a swirl. No one will give you the best answer but your own customers.

Test, Test, Test.

Google Website Optimizer: Free
Omniture: Paid

Cheers,
R

 

I'm all for testing, and catering to the needs of one's visitors, but I can't resist pointing something out. The classic Google search page is indeed nearly empty and all white. However, the modern iGoogle page fills my screen from left to right, and there's not much empty white space showing. It's also the default Google page I see, whenever I type "google.com" into my browser's navigation toolbar. If I want to see the older "classic" all-white interface, I have to click on a special link and request it.

Their Google Analytics service, also fills my screen, and the Google Search Based Keyword Tool fills in what would be large sections of empty white screen with a pleasant pastel blue. My point is, Google doesn't always code pages in a stark all-white scheme. I think they are trending away from it.

But I do agree, testing is a very sound idea.

 

I think the page is very well build. I agree with you that is is a bit to white, but since its all opinions and preferences you ready cannot do anything with it. I am not your audience. I suggest do lots of testing. You can try our tool for free and just change some colors in some locations for a small group of users) and take a look what effect that has... Testing testing testing!