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i set my browser zoom to 80% or lower. on a high-DPI screen everything is still perfectly legible and readable. i don't understand the fascination with extra-bi

i set my browser zoom to 80% or lower. on a high-DPI screen everything is still perfectly legible and readable. i don't understand the fascination with extra-big-ass fisher-price sized UI elements.

Borealid 2y ago
The huge UI elements are a consequence of optimizing for touchscreens. Mice (and even touchpads) are very precise pointing devices compared to a toddler's chunky fist. Modern UIs are created assuming you'll be using fingers to interact with them. Mice are an afterthought.
- Gigachad 2y ago
  I’m pretty sure what happened was all the UI started out big, and then high dpi displays made everything tiny, and eventually UI design caught up and made things legible again. There’s no reason why I need 20,000 items on the screen at the same time. Fewer but more legible items are better. I can scroll for more.
  - wtallis 2y ago
    No, high dpi displays did not make everything tiny and then huge. They just forced Microsoft to finally put some effort into making their UI scalability work properly. Displays with less than 100 dpi are still widespread, and today's software and web pages have far more padding and wasted space than they did 20 years ago. A 21" 4:3 CRT back then was at least as usable as a 27" 16:9 LCD today despite the newer displays having twice as many pixels. 17" displays in any aspect ratio are frustrating to the point of uselessness on today's desktops, but were fine in the '90s. The UI bloat is real whether you measure in pixels or inches, and very strongly correlated with the rise of touchscreens.
  - peeters 2y ago
    > There’s no reason why I need 20,000 items on the screen at the same time. Fewer but more legible items are better. I can scroll for more. I'm reasonably sure most spreadsheet power users would have the opposite preferences to you. I do, for one. Data density is everything in non-trivial spreadsheets.
    - toasterlovin 2y ago
      Exactly. Every time I see a new spreadsheet SaaS with the data density of a non-spreadsheet SaaS I immediately dismiss it as a toy.
moribvndvs 2y ago
I used to hate them, too, then my mid-40s happened. I do still think UX designers go a little too ham on padding, though.
ikidd 2y ago
Phones. People will seriously edit spreadsheets on a phone, I've seen it with my own eyes.
- mklepaczewski 2y ago
  Well, yeah. Companies store a lot of information in spreadsheets. CRM, financial info or really anything. People need to access it from their phones when the data is urgently needed.
- allset_ 2y ago
  Phone apps can have their own UI layout, font size, etc. though. No reason to force that on desktop users.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
    > No reason to force that on desktop users. Of course it is, because of 'mobile first!' Anything else is just more work, and a cost center. So f... it!
Sharlin 2y ago
Nobody bothers to think about large screen and mouse UX anymore. Everything's optimized for phones and tablets, and I guess that's where 95% of users are anyway.
invalidname 2y ago
You're probably young. I can barely see in 100% zoom and going back and forth with reading glasses is very uncomfortable. I spend 90% of my time looking for them. I have an air and a 16 inch Dell. I don't want to lug the Dell around because also, back pain.
- bolognafairy 2y ago
  Yep. If there’s one thing that Big Tech is doing even remotely better at in 2024, it’s letting the self-interest of the increasingly aging top brass guide the ship into making products that don’t assume that everyone is 20 years old with perfect vision. It’s one of the few things that Apple is doing well at, but they’re doing really well at it.
cma 2y ago
Extreme levels of padding just means zoom makes thing tinier than they should have to be, its still a problem even if continuing to zoom out and get more on the screen.
dawnerd 2y ago
A little on accessibility too but there’s a line all these companies cross. Designers are not always UX experts. Google hasn’t had any good UX, period.
anal_reactor 2y ago
People have a limit of information they can process at once, which goes higher the more familiar you are with given domain. Previously, having all the buttons visible on main screen was a good thing, because average tech-savvy user had no problem navigating that. But then we made technology accessible to general public, who cannot handle such complexity, therefore we needed to make UIs way simpler.
XCSme 2y ago
But most UI/UX tutorials often say "more padding/spacing is better".

i set my browser zoom to 80% or lower. on a high-DPI screen everything is still perfectly legible and readable. i don't understand the fascination with extra-big-ass fisher-price sized UI elements.

Borealid 2y ago

The huge UI elements are a consequence of optimizing for touchscreens. Mice (and even touchpads) are very precise pointing devices compared to a toddler's chunky fist. Modern UIs are created assuming you'll be using fingers to interact with them. Mice are an afterthought.

Gigachad 2y ago
I’m pretty sure what happened was all the UI started out big, and then high dpi displays made everything tiny, and eventually UI design caught up and made things legible again. There’s no reason why I need 20,000 items on the screen at the same time. Fewer but more legible items are better. I can scroll for more.
- wtallis 2y ago
  No, high dpi displays did not make everything tiny and then huge. They just forced Microsoft to finally put some effort into making their UI scalability work properly. Displays with less than 100 dpi are still widespread, and today's software and web pages have far more padding and wasted space than they did 20 years ago. A 21" 4:3 CRT back then was at least as usable as a 27" 16:9 LCD today despite the newer displays having twice as many pixels. 17" displays in any aspect ratio are frustrating to the point of uselessness on today's desktops, but were fine in the '90s. The UI bloat is real whether you measure in pixels or inches, and very strongly correlated with the rise of touchscreens.
- peeters 2y ago
  > There’s no reason why I need 20,000 items on the screen at the same time. Fewer but more legible items are better. I can scroll for more. I'm reasonably sure most spreadsheet power users would have the opposite preferences to you. I do, for one. Data density is everything in non-trivial spreadsheets.
  - toasterlovin 2y ago
    Exactly. Every time I see a new spreadsheet SaaS with the data density of a non-spreadsheet SaaS I immediately dismiss it as a toy.

moribvndvs 2y ago

I used to hate them, too, then my mid-40s happened. I do still think UX designers go a little too ham on padding, though.

ikidd 2y ago

Phones. People will seriously edit spreadsheets on a phone, I've seen it with my own eyes.

mklepaczewski 2y ago
Well, yeah. Companies store a lot of information in spreadsheets. CRM, financial info or really anything. People need to access it from their phones when the data is urgently needed.
allset_ 2y ago
Phone apps can have their own UI layout, font size, etc. though. No reason to force that on desktop users.
- LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
  > No reason to force that on desktop users. Of course it is, because of 'mobile first!' Anything else is just more work, and a cost center. So f... it!

Sharlin 2y ago

Nobody bothers to think about large screen and mouse UX anymore. Everything's optimized for phones and tablets, and I guess that's where 95% of users are anyway.

invalidname 2y ago

You're probably young. I can barely see in 100% zoom and going back and forth with reading glasses is very uncomfortable. I spend 90% of my time looking for them. I have an air and a 16 inch Dell. I don't want to lug the Dell around because also, back pain.

bolognafairy 2y ago
Yep. If there’s one thing that Big Tech is doing even remotely better at in 2024, it’s letting the self-interest of the increasingly aging top brass guide the ship into making products that don’t assume that everyone is 20 years old with perfect vision. It’s one of the few things that Apple is doing well at, but they’re doing really well at it.

cma 2y ago

Extreme levels of padding just means zoom makes thing tinier than they should have to be, its still a problem even if continuing to zoom out and get more on the screen.

dawnerd 2y ago

A little on accessibility too but there’s a line all these companies cross. Designers are not always UX experts. Google hasn’t had any good UX, period.

anal_reactor 2y ago

People have a limit of information they can process at once, which goes higher the more familiar you are with given domain. Previously, having all the buttons visible on main screen was a good thing, because average tech-savvy user had no problem navigating that. But then we made technology accessible to general public, who cannot handle such complexity, therefore we needed to make UIs way simpler.

XCSme 2y ago

But most UI/UX tutorials often say "more padding/spacing is better".