The Secret Science of Perfect Spacing

This week, we dive headfirst into something I think about way too much: spacing. Spacing is what gives UI's that "oddly satisfying" feel when done right, and that "something's off" feeling when it's done poorly. How do you design spacing correctly? Should you use a framework? Let's find out!
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[@romeominecraft5500]

FINALLY SOMEONE THAT DOESN'T THINK I'M CRAZY WHEN I TALK ABOUT THIS STUFF

[@8rbit]

yeah that's because you're watching a graphic designer who thinks about this frequently

[@stepanyaresko]

but even after watching the video I still have so many questions and uncertainty about margins 😭😭

[@feelcollins4358]

@@stepanyaresko What sort of questions have you got? I think it was perfectly explained, as a general rule of thumb you don't aim for mathematical symmetry for margin spacing but optical ones. that said "optical" view can change drastically depending on the composition of the content, I suggest looking through great UI designs like those made by Google team "Material Design" or Apple's design resource etc to train your eyes

[@faizbyp]

fr fr

[@EarendilTheBlessed]

You have a thing for graphic design. Far from everybody has a eye for it. gl hf

[@etsequentia6765]

I'm impressed. The Spacing Guild is a lot more friendly and approachable than I expected.

[@refchannel1167]

top tier comment 👏🏻

[@artxiom]

Let the Sp(a)ice flow...

[@HokoraYinphine]

​@@artxiom"Let the spaice flow"

[@chainlift.official]

can you just imagine a bunch of designerbros in airpod maxes and snapbacks going "yeah bro ill take you right to awwwards"

[@chainlift.official]

floating in tanks of vape clouds

[@nomadshiba]

kde devs needs to watch this

[@carlynghrafnsson4221]

They can't get theming right just yet. They probably need to hire a straight graphic designer versus programmers doing UX. Well, I got custom colors though. I'm easy.

[@vemuyaswanth803]

true 🤣😭

[@DasIllu]

Well i am on Gnome and i too have to hammer it in shape with addons 😀

[@kishirisu1268]

Every linux UI not even using proper grids, they just slap text into window and hope for the best.. probable those people do not have time to watch such tutorials and get better skills.

[@erlgr]

I laughed so hard at this comment, because it's absolutely true

[@imohitmayank]

A video nobody asked for, but everyone is grateful for👏

[@tommalycha3180]

This may be the most clear and consistent video tutorials for graphic design I have seen. Please create a video about using text sizing and colour value in hierarchy. Thank you for putting out great content! 😀

[@chainlift.official]

Stay tuned, it's on the way!

[@SharifulIslam-ws6cb]

Following...Though Im not a graphics designer...but I love it and sometime apply them to my photos.

[@ralkey]

I am actually surprised at how much I learned from this random video on my home page.

[@NoVIcE_Source]

even considering this is kind of an ad, i didnt even mind that lol

[@chainlift.official]

Genuinely appreciate that, my next one will be less in your face about that haha

[@martink5453]

I'd keep it up You're running a business, not being a KZbinr ;)

[@Dominasty]

These are all things I have been doing for years, intuitively. My secret? A certain kind of spatio-visual OCD. NOT self-diagnosed. But to see you so thoroughly break down what I'm doing without thinking...man...I can't believe how brilliant your mind is. It's one thing to just quickly get your work done and doing it well. But it is a whole other thing to be able to explain the deep logic, WITH visuals and animation, behind those decisions.

[@chainlift.official]

Brilliant? Nah. Vyvanse and free time. But you're very kind!

[@haveyouseenitthough]

I’m the same (not on the OCD I don’t think but with doing this intuitively) except I’m a dev so I often get frustrated when design give me Figma designs that don’t follow the same rules every time

[@raxkhmanLite]

ONLY FIFTH VIDEO IN THE CHANNELL!!?? The quality felt like you’ve produced at least hundred of them!

[@YainVieyra]

That's called Design.

[@krishc.8980]

i was surprised by the level of excellence and quality. definitely underrated

[@chainlift.official]

"surprisingly good" that should be my new slogan! Haha

[@BaldrianSector1996]

Studying Coded Design. Always struggled to understand why things worked. This was such a great simple explanation and makes so much sense to me. No more eyeballing. 🙌🏻

[@chainlift.official]

Glad it helped!

[@AlexMittsVOID]

"Body text go brrrrr" got me good. Fantastic watch, btw.

[@chainlift.official]

Thank you very much!

[@bruce-le-smith]

haha i appreciated that too, then lorem ipsum

[@MRX-ff4vy]

bodytext go

[@ConorDrew]

This video came up, I had a spare 10 minutes and loved it by the 3rd minute, can’t wait to see more and more of these and going into depth around certain areas. I have a refactoring UI book, and it’s really good, but the way yours animates and really dives in, shows a different perspective, the live demo was amazing too.

[@RavenMobile]

As a self-taught graphic and web designer, I got annoyed pretty early on with how fonts have a random bounding box, sometimes _WAY_ bigger than the largest letters (they seem to be spaced based on the largest symbol present in the font). So I got in the habit of adding fixed padding to left/right/bottom and then eyeball the top padding. Really annoying that there's not most consistency in this.

[@chainlift.official]

If your text elements line height is set to 1.272 unitless and the font size is derived from golden ratio coefficients measured in rem (e.g. 1.618rem, 1.272rem, 1.128rem, 1.06rem, or 0.618, 0.272, and so on) then you can always get guaranteed perfect top padding by simply making it 1em/1.272.

[@tiruialon]

Bounding boxes exist for a reason. Assuming all letters going into an input tag will always be ascii exclusive is pretty narrow minded. Imagine the world wide chaos that would ensue if browsers decided to pander to that kinda mindset. Hardest clap back of a lifetime. The amount of developers running this kind of 'Works on my machine' mentality is disgusting.

[@livinagoodlife]

@@tiruialontouch grass bro

[@tiruialon]

@@livinagoodlife Craftsmanship has died, and arguably never existed in programming. This is why. Not caring.

[@livinagoodlife]

@@tiruialon craftsmanship has never existed in programming? Man you’re something else.

[@Loumo]

I very nearly avoided this video just because of the unnecessary 2nd part of your title (“I Promise This Is Interesting”). Just some feedback! Otherwise very interesting video ;)

[@ArThur_hara]

So he changed the title?

[@madhavraghu]

yes it implies that the video is actually not interesting and we would need some convincing to watch it

[@lanceflores9832]

you deserve a lot of subs. such a comprehensive video. thank you!

[@Eutrofication]

idk if the channel is gone stay too small forever if you keep putting out bangers like this one

[@mhdm]

Summary: 1) The more related the elements the closer they should be. 2) All spacing values used should be from a small set of exponentially increasing values. 3) For an even-looking spacing put the top left corner of an element on a 45 deg line meeting the top left corner of its container.

[@KamaKase]

Great video. But I preferred the left box. The heading is too close to the top on the right one when you do the comparison.

[@jonnyhifi]

I’m glad it’s not just me - albeit the video is excellently made - the first example I really disliked it. The narrator said “the right one feels better spaced”, to me the exact opposite. The right one felt really scrunched up awkwardly to the top left … to the extent I’d have commented how badly layed out it was to others. It shows how matters of taste are personal.

[@dingchiyue7734]

Love the story and the smooth animation! Thanks!

[@mateuszpaszko9542]

The editing is so satisfying, great video !!!

[@balajprasanna]

The video is great. Sometimes we have the logic in our head but it becomes a little complex and technical when we lay it out to our team. Absolutely loved the way you have presented it and the pacing is spot on. Thank you so so much!

[@smallant.]

Am I the only one that thinks the card on the left in the intro looks better than the one on the right?

[@chuck_stones]

This was such a great video! Thanks guys and thank you Duff for being the first bassists playing I really fell in love with!

[@jorgejorge8878]

This is the most satisfying thing I've watched since ever.

[@harane]

im a highschool student who's been considering taking up ui design when im older. all of the things he said in the video clicked with me and i absolutely love the subject matter at hand here. im excited to learn more stuff if i do eventually decide on making this my final career path!

[@okie9025]

Backend devs are probably really confused right now

[@Umar-fm3vs]

One of the best videos on web design I have watched

[@wildmonkeymind]

As someone trying to get a better feel for design I really appreciate this, and the visualization and animations for the different spacing were beautifully executed. Beautiful video!

[@user-fp8lc4cv6p]

best video I've watched about spacing and thats surprising how much people don't talk about it

[@chainlift.official]

To be honest im genuinely shocked this video is gaining traction I thought there was literally zero interest in this kinda thing haha

[@astridwilde]

simple. elegant. memorable. brilliant. thank you

[@JuanManuelTastzian]

I don't know why I was recommended this, but I'm glad I did. This was super interesting and clear. I am currently designing a very small mockup of a box with a title, an image, etc. to present a digital product, and this comes in very handy. Thanks for sharing!

[@yakine13]

That's unbelievable well explained. Thank you so much!

[@JaylenFast]

Great video. Impressive animations. I took so many typography classes and excelled in them. If you are a design student, I recommend doing the same. 95% of design uses typography, and port typography can easily ruin your work. Spacing will become second nature after time.

[@babyboie20]

Thanks this helps a non designer like myself understand some of the concepts behind the science of UX. Def subscribing!

[@thevoicesinmyhead1976]

Awesome content, and I'm just 3 minutes in. Keep it up with the good work. Thank you very much!

[@samuelbreuer]

Best sales pitch ever! Fantastic video Thank you!

[@MisraPreetiman]

Excellent quality and depth of research. Instant sub.

[@ibnuzzaki9859]

I work often as book/article formatter, and this video just hits the spot....

Underrated channel, just thinking of improving my design lately and this video got recommended to me, nice.

[@webbae]

Garret you absolutely smashed it with this video. I can't wait to learn LiftKit!

[@chainlift.official]

senpai noticed me 👉👈

[@Metruzanca]

This is absolute amazing explanation.

[@robpt7779]

I am not even remotely in your industry or in need of your services or solutions. But MAN! Was that an satisfying video to watch. Loved it!❤

[@nandhagopal2074]

this is just awesome, happy that I came across this, beautifully explained, definitely subscribing to see more videos👏

[@abdullahiafolabi6905]

Interesting. FINALLY someone here explains what I've been struggling with for a long time . Thanks alot

[@EvilTim1911]

I'm a developer and I just use the values provided by our designers without much thought, but this video puts into perspective how much thinking has to be done on the design side as well, great stuff

[@patricknelson]

Sometimes, even if you do follow the values from the designers, it might not match the comp because they may not be accounting for things like box height, and line height, and that sort of thing. You might be back to eyeballing it again. 😬

[@LP...]

As a frontend developer trying to learn a bit about web design to make sites that sucks less I appreciate your video, Thanks! I always have problems with the line height and the spacing from the border to the text first pixels.

[@fever4174]

I don’t do anything on the web yet, but this video was pretty useful for my work with printed text documents. Got too sucked into the leading and the sequences, and was wondering why it felt off. Your insights on the semantic relationships was super helpful. Thank you.

[@aissa9225]

The quality of this video is just ✨

[@jaylinbooker6798]

Love this!! It's so intuitive and informative. I want to learn more!

[@cmyk8964]

I liked the left one better than the right one; it felt more balanced. Is it just me being CSS-brained?

[@chainlift.official]

Nah it's just preference

[@AlohaMichaelDaly]

I was a graphic designer and finished artist in the 70s + 80s. My colleagues and myself instinctively understood spacing relationships and appreciated typography. We marked up hard copy and with a surgeon’s knife cut and pasted galleys into precise positions. It’s been the most frustrating time in the transition from print to digital web editing because nurds controlled development without the slightest acknowledgement of design and designers. It’s only today seeing this video tutorial that I feel the nitty gritty aspect of design is being recognized to the point where print has been for centuries or at least since off-set printing. Now design is being thrust upon developers to code. But the system is a mess. We’re coming up to half a century of developers’ arrogance and oppression of design and designers. It’s a travesty that designers were not partnered from the get go. I dare say that the international web code is fundamentally flawed and at odds with the visual aspirations of good and efficient screen communications: design.

[@chainlift.official]

Hopefully we'll come up with a system they can both understand!

[@user-qk2vd9fd9x]

i always struggled with spacing, this video really helped me

[@hruzen]

Loved your video, got the best explanation and examples! You earned a sub

[@Tiamarruca]

I don´t know why this video appear on my feed, but I´m so greatful for it. Spacing is the hardest thing to do when it comes to do any in design related. I´m just talking as an amateur gal who has to do ton of presentations and infographs. Very helpful!!!

[@olillin]

I learnt so much from this! Great video

[@cdgonepotatoes4219]

Getting that satisfying spacing is the exact reason I use monospaced in documents, single heading and just use three character sizes which are multiples of 4.

[@evanjoyal9540]

Awesome vid. I didn't realize I was watching a video for webflow, and this cemented some of the learnings I've made over the years. Cloneable looks great, will try it.

[@kipchickensout]

This seems to be your first video that's animated and explained this way, I really like it! Needs more subs

[@tacticsplus]

I had to watch some complementary videos first like about EM, REM, and why use them instead of pixels, what is the golden ratio, etc to understand this video. But it was worth it, simplified so much and gave me a permanent guideline to work with. Thanks.

[@sergeyagronov9650]

excellent video on spacing , really good material and explanations

[@LW-zb8bf]

At 1:00 I honestly like the one on the left more.

[@mcd1814]

Amazing video, as a UX designer I’ve rarely seen such a good explanation for spacing! The thing I’m always confused with is the different spacing settings in Adobe Xd / Figma around text boxes. Does anyone know if the spacing around these is equal to paragraphs (css) with 0 padding?

[@andreas-at]

this video and explanation are golden! thanky you :)

[@Llamaful]

Such a high quality video! good work

[@glyakk]

I am really glad I found this

[@alanrm]

What a great video. Hope to see more like this. Subscribed!

[@flwi]

Wow, what an awesome video! Well done! Must have been a lot of work to animate all that so nicely.

[@two_horus7337]

Great video! Will be in touch in the coming months 👍

[@user-td5gy2fh3p]

Please please please make a full, straight to the point, no fluff course on all this. This is incredibly interesting. As a software engineer, I would love to have this knowledge for when working on my side projects and side hustles. Thanks.

[@abhishekparmar4983]

As an engineer who often does frontend this is gold

[@o_sch]

Wow, great video, I thought you would have had way more subs. You definitely deserve more.

[@rohanayush]

Just beautiful! Just wanted to say hi! I hope and wish that you make more such great videos and get all appreciation you deserve.

[@Touchgrassplz]

Yo this was helpful af and i love your rapndom ramblings

[@igrb]

this was so helpful, nice vid!

[@lukeyd13]

I would appreciate a longer version of thisb

[@chainlift.official]

I finished recording it today, I'm so tired 😩

[@omeizasanni]

such incredible value... subbed

[@theMadZakuPilot]

this video is brilliantly animated and informative . I learnt a lot and subbed, thank you. also, what software did you use to make these animations.

[@chainlift.official]

It's a Figma prototype that I just screen recorded with OBS 😅

[@batchrocketproject4720]

Nice explanation, thanks. I'd never realised how useful treating the bottom margin as the spacer is. I considerably improved the appearance of some basic text markup with some css rules applying the ideas I learned here very quickly. I think I'll delve a little deeper too as the gains will be worth the effort.

[@chainlift.official]

Woohoo! This is so nice to hear, I'm so glad it's helpful!

[@tedijevtic6756]

such a good quality video!!! keep it up

[@JuanPabloVasquez]

this is pure gold 🏆

[@TheManiat]

🎯 Key points for quick navigation: 00:02 *❓ Importance of spacing in UI design explained with questions about heading and paragraph spacing.* 00:29 *🔄 Introduction of subheading complicates spacing decisions.* 00:56 *🎨 Comparing properly spaced card designs to show balance and optical corrections.* 01:11 *🔍 Explanation of optical corrections in symmetrical padding.* 02:07 *🧩 Complexity of spacing relationships and introduction of three laws of spacing.* 02:34 *📊 Relationship strength determines element proximity in UI.* 03:29 *🔄 Adjusting UI elements based on content changes relationship dynamics.* 04:12 *🔢 Using preset spacing values from a scaling system for consistency.* 04:53 *📝 Example of spacing in an employee handbook design using Lift Kit system.* 06:04 *⚖️ Importance of varying spacing levels for clarity and readability.* 07:11 *🛠️ Different methods to implement the spacing system: Lift Kit, DIY, or hiring Chainlift.* 08:06 *🚀 Lift Kit’s benefits: free, lightweight, and easy to learn.* 08:20 *🧠 DIY method explained: involves formulas and practice, but offers customization.* 09:02 *🤝 Hiring Chainlift for setup and support, including QA and training.* 09:28 *📞 Encouragement to leave comments and contact for questions and support.* Made with HARPA AI

[@alexandercato7400]

Appreciate this video so much

[@davidh.5139]

I live for this kind of stuff. Make a discord for other designers to talk about niche stuff.

[@rafaelojeda]

This content is incredible!

[@fedeh777]

That body text really did go brrrr

[@mohitrahaman]

very high quality presentation

[@theshazman]

Subjective design is subjective. Theres some decent nuggets here that help someone getting into UI/UX and wants a quick overview of whats possible as far as spacing but i wouldn't call this a science. I would also expand on how all of this system would react to outside overrides like zooming, accessibility and responsiveness where you start entering the world of rems and relative scaling. Interesting video but I think there's a lot more to this that needs to be taken into consideration. We try so hard as humans to build formulas for everything and while that helps streamline things a bit, i also feel like it makes art and design rather soulless and sterile. But again, thats just my opinion. Happy designing!

[@programmers_sanctuary]

Can't believe you have a few subscribers. This video has a great vibe! I knew spacing was essential, but I've only bothered with typescale. I will now bother with spacing as well for aesthetics✨😂.

[@manashkashyap7780]

Damn we need more content like this

[@stijnslats5850]

Great video! The main problem is actually the line-height of textual elements together with dynamic content. Imagine I'm creating a simple reusable sections with a heading, subheading and text. The user can type whatever they want. Even capitalize everything. That will make it impossible to set a fixed margin or padding. You probably end up with an extra settings, which you don't want, because the user often doesn't understand this type of spacing principle...

[@MarioDuch]

This is such a well made video! Calling it now, this will eventually go to the moon. By the way, what are you using for the sick animations? Are you just doing to in your editing software?

[@chainlift.official]

Honestly it's a Figma prototype that I'm just screen recording 😅

[@MarioDuch]

That’s a great way of doing it! Will copy that for myself 😅 Thanks mate!

[@lebenebou]

Great video! Which software are you using for the slides?

[@EduardoFreire]

Great video! Would you mind to tell what app do you use to create these videos? Thank you.

[@SuperWolfkin]

Excellent video I've often done mathematically equal spaces and I just know it looks wrong. Thanks for letting me know i'm not crazy.

[@willpatersondesign]

Love this video 🎉

[@giordanolugo]

This is amazing 😮

[@dprophecyguy]

So youtube has decided to promote this. Job Well done.

[@mattshu]

Wow the production quality for the size of your channel is insane.

[@chainlift.official]

It's why I only post every 3 months haha

[@EnigmaverseElysium]

My course and field has very little to do with this random video but I’m gonna implement some of the stuff I’ve learned here on our project. Thanks 😁

[@skyguy4164]

I wish I found you sooner. Much love