Designing for Data Density: What most UI tutorials won’t teach you

If you’re new to the world of data-dense design, you may find that your past work or your portfolio is full of clean, airy layouts with generous whitespace and sleek mobile apps. These designs are attractive and aesthetically beautiful, but their purpose and objectives contrast from those typically required of data-dense platforms.

Unfortunately, the truth is that in the real world, especially in fintech, KYB, insurance, dashboards, enterprise apps, or analytics tools, you won’t be designing minimalist, highly polished interfaces that focus solely on sleek aesthetics; you’ll be designing for data density. You’ll be designing for power users who have the need to complete a series of tasks in the easiest, safest and most efficient way.

That means components such as tables, graphs, filters, metrics, icons, buttons, and dropdowns — all on the same screen. And your job is to make it not just usable, but beautifully functional.

Sadly, there are few resources that teach you the design fundamentals and practical guidelines that will help you achieve a UI that’s fit for purpose in this space.

With this in mind, I’ve listed some key principles that I believe are useful for those who are new to designing for dense, data-heavy UIs. These principles are key to creating a usable and intuitive user experience that can still delight and be aesthetically beautiful.

1. Whitespace is a tool, not a rule

Whitespace is used to draw attention to elements on the page. When used correctly, its classification becomes “active space”. It can quite often be glorified for the purpose of creating a highly visual user interface. Yes, whitespace is critical; however, dense UIs require intentional spacing, not just open space.

In high-density contexts, opt for tight but consistent paddings (4, 8 or 12 px grid spacing instead of 16–24 px). These values may seem small; however, in a UI that is also composed of smaller elements, such as buttons and text fields, the balance will become harmonious, and the user will appreciate more components within the page fold than fewer that greater whitespace would introduce. The following practises can also be implemented to ensure whitespace is used effectively:

• Balance whitespace with density — reduce row gaps in tables but preserve clear separation between functional groups (e.g., filters vs. data).
• Use it to emphasise priority, not just aesthetics — e.g., more space around critical CTAs or active statuses.
• Test whitespace with real content — what feels clean in mockups may feel disjointed or inefficient with actual data. Utilise tools like ChatGPT to generate contextual content.

Here’s an example of how I recently re-designed our primary sidebar, aimed at better supporting a data-dense interface. By tightening the whitespace and reducing font size and line height, I was able to improve discoverability and accommodate approximately 1.5x more navigation items within the same space.

Left: Our previous product sidebar designed with visual aesthetics as the primary goal. Right: Our new sidebar is designed with the intention of delivering a compact, dense, and scannable navigation.

💡Tip: Remember, you’re not removing whitespace — you’re compressing it with discipline.

2. Hierarchy is your best friend

When everything feels important, nothing stands out. That’s why hierarchy is crucial in dense interfaces. Users, stakeholders, product owners and UX researchers can all provide data to help build content hierarchies. Once a basic understanding of the content hierarchy is obtained, it can be successfully accomplished by using the following:

• Type scale — Create a system-wide type scale (e.g., 14px body, 12px labels, 16px headers, etc.)
• Font weight — Limit the number of weights but use them intentionally (e.g., regular for body, medium for labels, bold for importance)
• Color contrast — Opt for two type colours, a primary or leading colour and a muted secondary colour (e.g., bold for active/highlighted content, muted for supporting text)
• Positioning — Follow established reading patterns and position important elements in the most prominant area (e.g., top-left reads first, bottom-right reads last)

💡Tip: Ask yourself, 'If a user only glances at this screen for 5 seconds, what do I want them to see first?'

3. Make the most of every pixel and make every pixel work

In content-dense layouts, especially enterprise or workflow-orientated tools, there’s no room for decoration. Users are highly unlikely to notice visuals, as their focus is on task completion. Therefore, your focus must shift to ensuring that every pixel should justify its existence.

The following techniques help maximise UI real estate and promote function over form while creating an intentional design.

• Trim button padding where appropriate—opt for compact, not tiny buttons. I typically opt for buttons with a 32 or 36 pixel height.
• Adopt progressive disclosure — collapse or hide rarely used controls behind “More” or “…” menus and serve secondary information behind action buttons.
• Opt for smaller font sizes and line heights — Using a body font size of 14px with a line height of 20px helps to deliver a more compact user interface.
• Reduce table and padding sizes — this will help increase information efficiency without sacrificing clarity.

These aforementioned values may all seem on the small side; however, when used together, they create a compact but breathable user interface.

Our newly designed people page is data-dense, clear, incorporates progressive disclosure, and is still aesthetically beautiful

💡Tip: Remember, your job is to reduce visual noise while preserving clarity and control.

4. Design systems are essential, not optional

When dealing with a large number of UI components on one screen, inconsistency kills usability. Pattern recognition is essential in order to reduce user learning, increase confidence and improve task completion rates. Implementing a series of standalone components and patterns increases inconsistency, which has a negative effect on the end-user experience. Not only this, but it increases design and development maintenance and testing efforts.

If you don’t have a design system, I recommend implementing one when creating a data-dense product.

• Start small — a basic set of core styles (spacing, colours, type scale) and core elements (buttons, text fields and dropdowns) will create instant consistency throughout your design and reduce design and development effort.
• Implement a grid system — a common and favourable approach I take is to use a simple grid divisible by 4px.
• Implement size rulesets — consider documenting your approach when creating content-dense designs and explicitly set behaviours around button sizes, padding sizes, etc.

💡Tip: You’re not just designing one screen. You’re designing a language your product speaks.

5. Tables are more valuable than you may think

Designers often overlook tables or view them as outdated, but they remain a vital UI element for data-dense products. Tables present structured, relational information — like user lists, transactions, or verification statuses — in a format that supports fast scanning, sorting, and comparison. Their grid layout helps users identify patterns, filter relevant data, and make informed decisions, especially when dealing with complex data where time and multiple factors matter.

The use of table components within Linear.app

Implementing the following techniques can enhance the usability of tables within data-dense products:

• Sortable columns — Allow columns to be sorted ascending/descending to increase the user’s ability to locate specific items.
• Use relative dates when required—For dates that are recent or upcoming, use terms like ‘today’, ‘yesterday’, ‘3 weeks ago’, and ‘in 2 days time’.
• Use sticky headers and columns — When working with large data, opt for freezing the header and/or first column to reduce the user’s working memory when understanding context.
• Format dates consistently — Use human-friendly date formats, e.g., ’12 Jun 2025', instead of 2025-06–12, to reduce cognitive load.
• Avoid overload—large tables with many date entries can get overwhelming, so opt for pagination to reduce data consumption.

💡Tip: Just because cards and panels are currently popular doesn’t mean they’re always the best choice. When working with large datasets that contain repeating labels or structured information, consider using a table instead—it’s often a more efficient and user-friendly option.

6. Test for real usage, not aesthetic approval

Design decisions should be guided by how users actually interact with a product—not just for its aesthetic appeal. While visuals matter, real success comes from testing how well the interface supports user goals in context. A design might pass internal reviews for being clean or modern, but if users can’t complete key tasks efficiently, it’s failing its purpose. That’s why testing for real usage—speed, clarity, discoverability, and decision-making—is far more valuable than chasing aesthetic approval alone.

When testing for real-world usage, try to gain the following insights:

• Discovery—Do users find what they need quickly to reduce frustration and cognitive load?
• Interaction effort—Do they hover, hesitate, or misclick their intended action?
• Scanning—Can they scan tables and page components without losing context or momentum?

Together, these insights will help create interfaces that are fast, clear, and actionable—critical in environments where users are making decisions based on large volumes of data.

💡Tip: Design isn’t just how it looks—it’s how fast a user can get to the outcome.

Final thoughts…

When starting your journey into the world of data-dense UIs, it’s quite easy to be scared of complexity. The best approach designers can take is learning to lean into it and bring order, calm, and clarity to information chaos. As Jony Ive once stated:

“True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation. It’s about bringing order to complexity.”

The ability to transform a complex interface, one that is heavily loaded with filters, forms, and dense data, into a clear and intuitive experience elevates a UI designer beyond mere aesthetics. It reflects a deep proficiency in macro design and systems thinking. In today’s product landscape, this skill can be quite rare due to the absence of resources dedicated to this practice; however, if it’s one you can master, your skill set will be both highly valuable and distinctly powerful.