Too much white space?

[mikey_w]

On my current website, I have decided to try and follow the rule that says text is easier to read when the number of letters/characters per line is around 55-65.

Because my website is new, and I haven’t had a chance to fill it up with lots of “digital bling”, I am wondering if there is too much white space on each side of the article.

Below are some screen-shots at different screen sizes. (The contact details and top menu were cropped out so people don’t start calling me!)

800-pixels:

(**NOTE: The outside black border is from the screen-capture software and not part of what the user would see.)

[b]1,000-pixels[/b] 

Lots of white space here…

1,280-pixels

A little better because of the listing of articles.

I am sure that over time I will add more content (e.g. a left column) and that will solve this issue. But in the mean time, do you think these screens are acceptable, or do they look horrible? (Especially the 2nd one.)

Thanks.

[SamA74]

Well, it’s very clear and readable, if not a little bland. I understand you don’t want to “over bling” it and keep a minimalist look, that’s cool, white space is not a bad thing. But I feel it does need something in the background, maybe a colour, gradient, a subtle pattern or image. Nothing too in-your-face, do keep the subtle minimalist feel, it just doesn’t need to be a clone of Firefox in Reader View.
The list of articles on the wide view, you could add those in earlier if you wanted, there is space.