[Sigia-l] length of nav labels

[Terrence Wood]

On 11 Aug 2005, at 6:36 AM, Jared M. Spool wrote:

>> > However, specific to whitespace and information density, our 
>> research also
>> > shows that whitespace (non-information bearing space) is inversely 
>> related
>> > to task success.
>>
>> I live to refute such research.
>
> Me too. So far, I haven't been successful. But, I'll keep trying.

Whitespace includes the breathing room around different elements on a 
page - the idea of grouping/chunking by it's very nature includes 
whitespace. Success! ;-)

The use of whitespace at mcmaster is actually pretty good. The front 
page design probably works because it has a single purpose serving a 
very narrow audience who already understand the content. The use of 
chunking aids in navigation on the main page and inside the the pages 
are not very dense at all.

I'm all for highly-focused single purpose sites.

>
>> > In other words, denser pages tend to do better. It's an artifcat of 
>> the
>> > limited space in a browser window and the demands of information 
>> research.
>>

This is one to watch as screen sizes increase, what may be true for 640 
- 800 displays may not stand up well at 1028 or bigger. Think hicks law 
- the more complex a system is, the longer it takes to use.

>> Browser window is infinitely extensible in one direction, and people 
>> do
>> scroll if/when they are given an incentive to do so.
>
> Yuppers. And our research has shown that lots of whitespace actually 
> reduces their incentive. (Old article, but it gets into some of the 
> issues: http://www.uie.com/articles/page_scrolling/ Maybe it's time I 
> update it a bit? The research is the same, but examples are way 
> different now.)

I'm inclined to disagree that this conclusion says anything valuable 
about whitespace because there simply isn't enough information. I can't 
refute this research, because I only know the conclusion as reported, 
but consider this: the inclusion or lack of *actual content* and 
*meaningful links* may be the driver for task success rather than 
whitespace and page length - longer pages simply have more on them.

kind regards
Terrence Wood.