MPC6,

You are probably correct. I like your expression "Negative Space Appeal" to describe it.

As a very old engineer who is used to equipment that had all of the controls and readouts at your fingertips to run the equipment, proper layout is critical. But I don't think having huge blank pages on a screen are helpful. 

I deal with an online system as part of my daily job. They have taken the Negative Space Appeal to new heights.  A screen that could fit all of the pertinent information on one window with no need to scroll requires scrolling through a page height of about 3 screens. Worse, when you upload a file, select a dropbox, etc., the screen is likely to jump to an unrelated area of the page, requiring you to scroll to find the next required input.

I guess that is how they teach programming these days. 

I wonder if Intuit ever thought about paying some real people with real businesses to spend a week with their marketing people and software people to help them understand a good workflow process?