8 years ago, Nielsen analyzed the space allocation across 50 website homepages and found that only 40% of screen space was used on navigation
or content of interest to users. This was in the days of 800×600 monitors when space was particularly precious. Today, many websites are a bit better, and bigger monitors obviously allow for more room to play.
Still, sites frequently open important features in tiny pop-ups, violating two guidelines:
- Don’t pollute users’ screens with pop-ups.
- Show stuff in a space that’s big enough to let users see everything they need to see without scrolling.
Tablets
The proliferation of small, hard-to-use interaction areas in iPad apps is partly Apple’s fault because of a design mistake in the default email application. The inbox is shown as a skinny menu down the side. This is great in the landscape view, letting users quickly alternate between the inbox and individual messages so they can quickly process their mail.
In the portrait orientation, however, the inbox menu appears as an overlay that partly obscures the message content, making it impossible to work with the two panes simultaneously. Why show two panes, when you can’t use both? It would be better to display the inbox across the entire tablet screen, showing more messages and/or more extensive previews of each message.
Bigger is Better
Mobile devices and tablets are inherently small, so you must optimize the use of their screen space and show things as large as possible. Desktop screens are bigger, so you can often achieve a better user experience by enlarging things even more.
There are very few exceptions to the rule that bigger is better in user interfaces. One example is found on sites that insist on opening new windows and maximizing them — even on the biggest of monitors. Once people get a 30-inch monitor, they don’t want maximized browser windows anymore; it’s highly annoying to find, say, a glossary entry taking up 2560×1600 pixels and obscuring the other windows you’re working with.
Optimizing the UI for the available screen space is a key strategy for improving usability.
This article is based on “Utilize Available Screen Space” originally published at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen-space-use.html
