The ‘expanding columns’ problem
Microsoft Windows still leads the way in flouting principles of usability.
I rarely post about usability and, when I do, it’s usually of the web flavour. Something struck me about the Windows file open dialog today, though, and a quick rant post is bursting to come out.
Here’s a standard file open dialog with a few uninterestingly named files:
All looks OK, but look at what happens when a single extra file is added within that directory:
All of a sudden, we can see only about half as many files within the same sized dialog. And look at the size of that scrollbar! What’s going on here? Scrolling to the right reveals the name of that new file:
Yes, I purposely chose a very long filename, just to prove a point: the columns in that dialog all adopt an equal width, that of the longest filename. So, one poorly named file annoyingly renders the view much less useful than it could be.
Why on earth isn’t each column just as wide as it needs to be? Your guess is as good as mine (unless you happen to be a Windows developer and you can actually shed some light on the matter).
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Mon 11 Apr 2011 20:19
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