So, I've been using the Windows 8 Release Preview since it came out, almost exclusively (except for work, since I'm obviously not going to rely on unfinished and untested software for that). I already knew I could get into Metro on my 11.6" ZenBook, but on my 24" desktop, things aren't looking as rosy. Here's an illustrated guide of the most pressing issues I run into, and five suggestions to address them. Instead of just complaining, let's get constructive.
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Member since:2008-08-09
I think the most likely suggestion here is to go the horizontally scrolling overflowing column route. At least that is the setup that Microsoft appears to favor for Metro, since pretty much all Metro apps have to solve a similar problem. For the actual front-page I would expect that this could be made to work fairly nicely, but I'll readily admit that the comment section is a trickier problem.
edit: To add to this, stories on the front-page are currently about 600 pixels wide. I can in fullscreen on a 1920x1080 monitor see four "main" stories. Narrowing them slightly to just under 500 pixels would allow those to be fit side-by-side for the purposes of a horizontal layout, and they could then get most of the 1080 height to themselves, allowing much longer sections of the stories to be visible. Granted, the "page 2" part also needs to be fit in there, but those could serve to fill out the columns. Unfortunately this is a bit more work, since packing the columns needs to be done somewhat intelligently, but it certainly seems like a reasonable way to do things when trying to use the space.
Edited 2012-06-04 14:15 UTC
Member since:2012-03-14
I think it is worth noting that many of us stopped using the Gawker sites when they went to what felt like a Tablet site design that happened to work on a desktop. So make sure you use analytics to make sure that any design choices are backed up by usage and trends.
Is there a strong corellation between those that have high res screens and those using up to date browsers?
If so you might want to take a look at multi-column at extreme width if you are planning a reactive design.
http://caniuse.com/multicolumn
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Member since:
2005-06-29
The reason I'm interested in this is because I designed the next version of OSNews (don't have public previews yet, so don't ask) and have, indeed, played with the idea of what to do with the stuff on the sides. And, other than increasing font size (not an option), or adding in useless stuff (stock photo bullshit or enlarged quotes or whatever) do nothing to improve the reading experience.
This reading experience is the focus for me, and anything that doesn't improve this reading experience won't be implemented in OSNews Nina (codename of the next version). For 95% of sites out there - especially relatively light, text-focussed sites like OSNews - it's virtually impossible to make use of this horizontal space without adding fluff.
So yes, I experimented with it, but came to the conclusion that anything I could do to make use of all this horizontal space would only serve to harm the reading experience, instead of improving it. And, well, adding stuff without any reason?
Nope.