subject: When You Make A Website Consider The Word Spacing [print this page] What makes Wal-Mart great? Is it the exploitation of suppliers enabling low low prices? Is the near dead person who comes alive to greet you as you walk in the door? Is it happy shoppers with yesterdays lunch on their shirts?
No. The reason Wal-Mart is great is because of the wide isles.
The isles are wide enough to pass. Some old granny standing in the isle deciding which is lighter on her pension check - 200 grams of salt for $1.99 or 250 grams for $2.20. No problem, thanks to the wide isles you can go around.
You are down in the middle of the isle. Same distance forward and back. Reaching for the Ketchup you suddenly see why Wal-Mart is successful walking towards you. A woman in her thirties, sides bulging out her jeans, baby in the cart, screaming child pounding at her water balloon buttocks. The lot are heading for the cereal section behind you. What do you do? Nothing. The isles are wide and they can pass right by you.
Compare that with the little mom and pops shops. In these shops the isles are not even wide enough for one person to walk abreast. You need to shuffle sideways through the isles.
Mom and Pop do not care about your comfort. All they care about is immediate profit. They want to pack in as much into their little store as they can. Every possible nook and cranny is filled with junk. You end up walk around like in a submarine, actually worse, in a submarine you do not need to worry about knocking over a wine glass displayed precariously balanced on a piece of wood perturbing into the narrow isle.
And God forbid someone else comes down the isles. It becomes a staring matching to see who backs down and slowly reverses course out of the isle.
What Does Isle Size Teach You About Website Word Spacing
When people create a website they worry about the content and the design. They worry whether the logo is too flashy or if the tone of their writing is too somber; should the background color be eggshell white or should it be coconut white; can I use I in my writing.
Although these are important things to consider, they are seconding compared to the spacing of the words.
Nothing drives a person to the red X in the corner then tightly spaced text. Text without sufficient spaces between paragraphs, words and letters is bad. It is cluttered and uncomfortable. The text is a mental strain to read.
Have lots of room around your title. Have lots of room between paragraphs. With CCS is it easy to increase the space between words and letters. Do it. Do not pack the words together so that you have more room for advertisements. Do not be greedy and think only about immediate returns. There is no point having a awesome logo and fantastic content if nobody will read it because your isles are too narrow.
