top of page
Search

White space is your friend 

Writer's picture: Clare TarlingClare Tarling

A large, empty room
A large, empty room

The most important design element of Easy Read design is nothing



Space on the page. 



An analogy in music: I took part in some incredible music improvisation training a few years ago: Lifemusic with Dr Rod Paton and Laura Cousins (a talented community musician from Bournemouth). A particularly challenging exercise was “Time Holes”. Members of the group took it in turns to start and then stop a period of silence. 


The person in charge of each “time hole” decided how long it should last by indicating the start and the end of the “hole”. The rest of the group simply sat through the silence, whether it was 3 seconds or 3 minutes. That's the game. 


Subsequent group discussion revealed many different perspectives about whether the silence was relaxing, uncomfortable or excruciating. These reactions are often linked to people’s personality, childhood experiences, and memories of difficult or blissful events. 


So, back to creating a page of Easy Read information. As with any type of space, it is tempting to fill it. We wonder whether to add a few extra words, some borders, shading, more pictures, some underlined text and other flourishes. But my rule of thumb comes from Antoine St Exupery


“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”


Get comfortable with leaving heaps of space on your page. Look at the shapes it makes. See it as an important part of your design - and give it as much attention as the text, colours and images. Your readers will thank you.

31 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


©2025 by Clare Tarling

bottom of page