It is interesting how different people work with data on a computer. While one screen layout is efficient for one person, it is not efficient for another. It all depends on how your mind works and how you access, manipulate and utilize data.
I worked for a company where the user experience (ux) designer was not a computer professional. They really liked the vertical scroll bar. The fact that the entire application could be viewed on a single screen and you could simply scroll to section of data that you were looking for without any further navigation was powerful for this individual. They could not visualize any other navigation techniques to specific sections of data as being useful. Ultimately, we were able to convince them to place bookmarks on the side of the screen so you could “scroll” directly to a certain place of interest.
I will say that this application had poor performance because it was just after windows ’95 and had so many controls on the screen the workstation ran out of GDI memory. The other part about this system was that it was near impossible to create a report for the application because it was so long, and was literally printed as a scroll. Page after page were printed with the different data, and then taped together with clear tape to produce a scroll. It would have worked better with continuous feed paper.
Recently I was reading a blog by Clinton Jones where he used the phrase I had not seen before, “below the fold.” http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/nerf/data-above-the-fold-59253 His definition was any data on a web page that required scrolling was “below the fold” and probably either needed to be eliminated, or accessed on a different screen in some fashion. I really like that mindset. I love my keyboard and hate it when I become a cripple to a mouse in order to navigate through data.
Enter the touch screen. They have been around for a while, but not with the modern gestures having been created for mobile devices and many other needs. Today the ability to scroll quickly by different gestures both vertically and horizontally has again changed the way we access our data content.
For me the point is not that things keep changing or improving or degrading. I think I’m just seeing that not everybody or every application works the same. Efficiency is not necessarily in the latest GUI craze. That’s why it bothers me when Microsoft takes away the start button in Windows, and google takes away the scroll arrows in Chrome. It may not be the way they work, or even the majority of the end users work. But they sure messed me up. I’m glad I don’t have to continue to work with the Scroll application, because Google took it away.
That’s my rant for the day. Do you disagree? Please feel free to add your comments here online, or send me an Email to post it for you at btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben