What do you think about UI that gives density customization like Gmail?

Posted by throwaway8829 on Monday May 22, 2023 @06:14PM
from the self-post dept.

How do you feel about UI that gives you settings to control the layout (Gmail), vs having a more opinionated single layout (Instagram)?

( 3 comments | 2 points | on HN )

Re:What do you think about UI that gives density customizati... by zalebz on Monday May 22, 2023 @06:31PM (#36037521)

Providing user UI flexibility is never a "problem".

Obviously there is a tradeoff - there is always a tradeoff in software.

Having just gone through a re-design, our team's tradeoff was how much time to spend tweaking media-queries/screen-size responsivity for the countless permutations of device-resolutions & dpis vs just picking a handful of density-levels.

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Re:What do you think about UI that gives density customizati... by DLA on Monday May 22, 2023 @06:20PM (#36037414)

Absolute must have! In a former life I was a trader and the Bloomberg terminal has some very dense displays which are all stunning. Far too many sites and apps use very padded cards and sections which make for a very poor “data/ink ratio” [1]. Allowing the user to density the display with settings options fixes it.

[1] https://jtr13.github.io/cc19/tuftes-principles-of-data-ink.h...

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Re:What do you think about UI that gives density customizati... by verdverm on Monday May 22, 2023 @06:22PM (#36037437)

"One size does not fit all" is a common phrase for a reason

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