Clay is shapen to make vessels; but the contained space is what is useful. Matter is therefore of use only to mark the limits of the space which is the thing of real value. | ||
--Dao Deking; Lao Dsu, translated by Alaister Crowley |
There are two types of white space in a Graphical User Interface.
The area of maximum sharpness (fovea) , inside the human eye, is very small. The eye must move fast over the regions of a to large object to bring their images onto the fovea. Hence the amount, or rather the need to limit internal white space is an important factor in Graphical User Interface design. Ideally, the contents and borders of a control would fall in this area with only a single glance of the eye. Allowing for the at-once recognition of the control.
The -compound property is used in Tcl/Tk to combine text and icon on a single control such as on buttons. The -padx or -pady properties define the distance between text and icon. Which is reasonable, because -padx and -pady are also the distance to the border.
A different colour can be used to lessen the negative impact of additional white space, when there is already to much of it inside the control.
Another approach is using a pattern in the background of the dialog. This way the white space inside the controls is easily distinguished from the patterned white space of the dialog.
Example 4.3. Pattern
Gstripes may use any sort of patterns. The default pattern, bundled within Gstripes, are stripes known from AQUA®.
Jeszra’s own SafariX11 design features a a stripped background, likewise does AQUA® till Apple® OSX version 10.4.
Gradients are increasingly introduced into the dialog background. Using gradients with Gstripes is identical to pattern.
Lots of background gradients may lead to fragmentation. This fragmentation may or may not be desirable. Fragmentation is an increase in visual complexity. One solution would be to use a single uniform gradient running through the entire dialog. Not many toolkits provide the technical means for using uniform gradients.
Example 4.4. Uniform Gradients in Jeszra
The Jeszra designs SeaX11, WhiteX11, GrayX11 and BlackX11 deploy uniform gradients. Radial gradients run through the entire dialogs. The same gradient goes through the toolbar on-top, too.
The exception is the Rtl_tabset control, which features a different gradient. The gradients inside the Rtl_tabset and its tabs are being used to augment it.
Group Boxes Have a long history in Graphical User Interfaces. The original design was a simple line around an area with other controls in it. The principal problem with group boxes is that the outer line is always outside the visual center of sharpness, the fovea.
The focus frame is meant to emphasis the control’s boundaries. The focus frame indicates to which control any keyboard event, such as a key stroke, will be sent. The focus frame is mostly a simple enclosing, unfilled box, featuring a signal colour for its border.
The focus frame occupies what is ordinarily white space, either in or outside of a control.