Re:Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback
by TeMPOraL on Sunday December 24, 2017 @06:56AM
(#15999175)
It's all because with web applications, a browser becomes a (shitty) window manager.
> So if you want to use for example maps on one tab and read text on another, the best UX would be to have users resize their browser when changing tabs?
The best UX would probably for text and maps in this example to be in different windows, to be honest. But that causes other issues with the mental model people have about web sites. Still, having a website-provided width limit helps avoid a click or two required to split the site off and resize its window, at the cost of wasting huge amount of screen space.
Not sure what's the way towards a better UX, though. I myself like tiling window managers, in which I can efficiently position stuff with keyboard the way I like, but I understand this will be too complex for casual users. I also like grid window positioning, like http://windowgrid.net/ which I use on Windows, which lets me flexibly resize windows with the mouse while retaining a nice looking layout. I feel that a solution like this would be simple enough for regulars, too, offering them useful flexibility with little confusion.
> So if you want to use for example maps on one tab and read text on another, the best UX would be to have users resize their browser when changing tabs?
The best UX would probably for text and maps in this example to be in different windows, to be honest. But that causes other issues with the mental model people have about web sites. Still, having a website-provided width limit helps avoid a click or two required to split the site off and resize its window, at the cost of wasting huge amount of screen space.
Not sure what's the way towards a better UX, though. I myself like tiling window managers, in which I can efficiently position stuff with keyboard the way I like, but I understand this will be too complex for casual users. I also like grid window positioning, like http://windowgrid.net/ which I use on Windows, which lets me flexibly resize windows with the mouse while retaining a nice looking layout. I feel that a solution like this would be simple enough for regulars, too, offering them useful flexibility with little confusion.