What are the rules of thumb for margins in web design?

Question

My web designer tells me that in a web page, the empty margins or padding should always be multiples of a standard. For example 6 px, 12px, 18px. This should produce nicely balanced lay-outs. I would like to learn a little bit more about it:

Should one really not violate this at all?

Should the standard be the same horizontally and vertically?

Answer 1

• The best learning resource for this would be a good introduction on typography – probably the seminal classic by Bringhurst (see http://webtypography.net for a good roundup applied to the web), though e. g. Spiekermann's ‘Stop Stealing Sheep…’ is not bad for starters, either – and on design grids (see my answer here on UXexchange).

• When designing grids you are mostly using a basic module (proportions ideally defined by working from the content outwards) that all content is fitted to (i.e. multiples of it).

• Vertical and horizontal margins between blocks are in most cases different. Vertical whitespace is often oriented on the baseline grid (see e.g. Bringhurst, again). Using one is highly recommended to achieve at a unifying vertical rhythm.

• The minimum amount of horizontal whitespace, i. e. primarily the separation between columns of body text (gutter), is governed by Gestalt psychology with font size, line spacing, and line width as main influencing factors. You should place text blocks far enough from another such that your recipients will be able to see them as distinct units of their own. A traditional rule of thumb would make the gutter at least 1.5 ems wide in order to appear significantly wider than any possible whitespace within a line of text. On the screen, good line spacing tends to be a little bit wider than in traditional print, though. Hence you will probably need a little bit more than that. Using the same value as your baseline grid is a good guess to start with in most cases.

• BTW: design standards – unless significantly backed up by ergonomics or cognitive psychology – are never standards in the more rigid sense of the word. You may violate any ‘standard’ as long as you know why you are doing it.

Answer 2

Yes... and no. What your designer might refer to is proximity through grouping. The white spaces (in your case margins) separates different groups of elements from each other.

More on the topic: Grouping Elements for Clear Web Page Design

Answer 3

It can be helpful to have standard spacing within content sections. IE paragraphs, headings and lists should all have the same amount of spacing below them as that creates rhythm. The rule of thumb though is to maintain balance and consistency.

Answer 4

This site's layout is a good example of how a combination of adherence to multiple patterns yields balanced proportions and an overall consistent structure. The logo, for example, is spaced approximately 14px at the top and bottom within its header segment though it's indented 18px from the edge of the question header, making the top and bottom spacing approximately 30% smaller than the left side - other elements within the header are spaced similarly. On the other hand, the spacing of the text within the question header is approximately 9px on the bottom, 13px on the top, and 24px on the left side. That sets the top spacing to be approximately 50% smaller than the left side, and the discrepancy in the bottom is relative to the alignment of the text to the bottom of the main header in addition to it being header text (separated from the main content with a divider, though closer to that content which it more closely relates to than anything else that surrounds it).

Proportions vary and are an art in themselves. There is a math to it all, but bringing a complex structure together is, in practice, a generally intuitive process.

I'm sure there are multiple books and online resources that touch on this, and they are all likely helpful in their own ways, but my best advice is to be an avid observer of proportions in the things around you - in themselves and relative to their environments and other things in that environment - especially in nature. In time you will hone your intuition and begin to more naturally imitate those proportions and apply them in their appropriate settings.

Answer 5

It's better to use relative values - "em"s or percents, because margin looks good only in specific width/height ratio.

Relative sizes are useful even in fixed layouts, because when you need it to shrink/widen a little, you have to change it only in one place.

So the answer is: Do not use pixels, use "em"s for margins as well as box sizes, and it IMHO should be between 0.5em to 2em - depending on visual experience.

And ratio between vertical and horizontal margin depends on overall "vertical&horizontal" rhythm (google).

Answer 6

I do not believe there are any 'rules' to design, only principals; congruence and proportion are key principals of design, wherein any principal can be disregarded.

Your margins can be whatever you decide is aesthetically best, but should you choose to be mindful of "best practices," you will most likely make that decision based in an adherence to effective use of proportions, consistency and purpose.

Art is not formulaic--if every website had margins and banner sizes perfectly matched to 'strict rules,' and 'the best grid,' the originality (and overall impact) of that web design would suffer greatly.

Using 6px or 12px margins throughout your site is no different than 7px and 29px margins--just have a reason for your choice, and stick to it rationally. The people who say your margins need to be "perfect golden ratios of this containers width" are, in my opinion, losing sight of the creative aspect of web design--they also tend to be the designers who make cookie cutter websites... albeit potentially nice looking cookie cutter websites :)

Whether to use em over px is another story--and will require your own discretion. Fluid websites aren't always the best solution; it wouldn't be a bad habit to get used to using em's though (and maybe leaving yourself a reminder)--eg.

.myclass {
     color : #333;
     font-size : 1.125em /* 18px at default */
}

Answer 7

You should have consistency yes - but if the page is not user focused what good are multiple standard margins/padding anyways. I try and use multiples of 5 personally as it is faster to equate.

Answer 8

Consider using a grid layout where your margins are also given by that grid. I tend to use the 960 Grid System but there are many more that other swear by.

For me the benefit of this is largely from choosing something once that works and then not having to spend time thinking about it every time something needs to be laid out.