Almost all business applications have horizontal menus and ribbons that take up a decent percentage of a landscape monitor instead of utilising the “spare” screen space on the left or right, and a taskbar usually sits at the bottom or top of the screen eating up even more space (yes I know this can be changed but it’s not the default).
Documents are traditionally printed/read in portrait which is reflected on digital documents.
Programmers often rotate their screens to be portrait in order to see more of the code.
Most web pages rarely seem to make use of horizontal real estate, and scrolling is almost universally vertical. Even phones are utilised in portrait for the vast majority of time, and many web pages are designed for mobile first.
Beyond media consumption and production, it feels like the most commonly used workplace productivity apps are less useful in landscape mode. So why aren’t more office-based computer screens giant squares instead of horizontal rectangles?
Stop making a single browser window full screen and use the additional space on the side for something useful. A chat application, a notepad, a calculator, file browsing, a second browser window, documents, etc.
Or rotate the display to be tall instead of wide if you really want the extra vertical space.
Just because you haven’t bothered to take advantage of the space doesn’t mean it’s useless. You’ve just trapped yourself in a close-minded box. Making the monitor wider doesn’t ‘reduce the amount of viewable area top to bottom’, it adds additional area to the sides, primarily for additional tasks in an office setting. It’s up to you to actually use it.
So stop using monitors the way I’ve been using them since 1982? Stop using them the way that literally every other screen I interact with functions?
That’s what 2nd and 3rd monitors are for.
That’s not so easy when you’re using multiple curved monitors with a stand or mount.
I get what you’re saying, I really do, but from my point of view it’s incorrect. It breaks the usage paradigm that’s been in place since these things were invented and there’s no other screens in our lives where we intentionally use less than the full width available for a single task.
Yes. Technology has grown and expanded rapidly over those 43 years. You should also be changing with time to take advantage of such technological growth.
Your other screens can be used to multi task as well. Phones/tablets have picture-in-picture and app split-screen (both of which I use frequently).
TVs are admittedly geared towards single wide screen tasks like the obvious: media consumption. Though some smart TVs will also let you web browse while watching TV. And I’m pretty sure game consoles that facilitate streaming allow you to display chat over or beside the game.
That’s what additional monitors can be used for; but the point is with a single wide monitor you don’t have to run a second monitor. You already have that additional space available when/if you want it.
Sure, I’m usually viewing a single window; but there’s plenty of times when I want to open multiple applications side by side. I also play games and watch media; both of which are widescreen experiences. You might not need it 100% of the time, but it’s there when you do.
You’ve got tons of screen real estate to work with then; what’s your concern? You could mount one vertically, you could use different sized displays, you could stack them.
Nobody’s forced you to stick with the setup you have. If you wamt something different, set things up differently; it’s your setup. Don’t trap yourself in a box thinking you can only set things up or use them the way you’ve seen others do it. Be your own person.
Whoo boy that’s funny, thanks for the chuckle. I’ve been technology professional so long that I literally predate NAT. To say that I’ve changed with the time would be an understatement.
Huh, media consumption. You mean like Lemmy or any other web media?
Here’s where we diverge and despite considering the issue for several hours now I’m still not sure if this is a generational issue or something else. Obviously I’m from the time before widescreen and it looks like to me like you’re trying to use a workaround (multiple windows on a single screen) to justify what is objectively a downgrade in display technology.
You are in essence saying “Yes I know the monitor doesn’t have enough vertical space but you are supposed to use the extra horizontal space to overcome that.” I am going to counter by saying that computer monitors shouldn’t be 16x9, that’s a TV / Movie format forced into the computer industry by display makers who wanted to leverage their investment in television panels to produce cheap computer monitors. In short you are forcing yourself to find ways to work around display tech that doesn’t fit the use case; the screen is wider than it needs to be while not being tall enough.
Amusingly I was discussing this with a peer about an hour ago and he brought up ultra wide monitors like the Samsung Odyssey QD-OLED G9 (5120x1440) and after looking at it we decided that a monitor with the same physical width (48") but double the physical height (20" vs 40") and double the horizontal resolution (2880) would be near perfect. With such a monitor there would be so much real estate that app windows would stay large enough to be readable while still being capable of displaying lots of data vertically.
Ahhh, now we hit the rub. I do a lot of remote GUI work and what I’m dropping into expects widescreen and uses all of it. Downscaling that into an app window makes the problem worse because it leaves large areas unused horizontally and there’s still not enough vertical. I could flip a monitor to portrait but then it’s too narrow to be handled correctly because what was a lack of vertical resolution has now become a lack of horizontal resolution. This is another symptom of 16:19 being a bad aspect ratio for computer displays.
This person is seriously considering a pair of frameless ultra widescreen displays in a vertical stack. Expensive AF but potentially oh so usable.
You do you with multiple app windows squished to fit into today’s displays. If it works for you then it works for you.
Enjoy your day.
This is an unnecessarily patronising response.
Your answer to apps not utilising left and right space efficiently is “well you should do something else then”. It’s not the user’s fault.
Yes, that is my response and I stand by it.
Some applications take advantage of the full widescreen, some don’t need it. It’s entirely up to you to use the additional space for something else when a single application doesn’t need the extra space given to it or you just accept that it’s not needed right now.
Yes, it is the users fault. Because the user is whining that not every single application and piece of media is the exact same form factor like that’s at all a reasonable expectation.
You’re seriously upset that sometimes you’ve got more space available than absolutely necessary?
No I’m not upset by anything 😂
It sounds like you’re excusing poor UI design by saying “just use the extra space for something else”
If only those apps displayed even less content horizontally, we could get even more of them on the screen and be yet more productive, right!? 😂
I’m not excusing poor design, I’m saying in many cases there is no UI design you could implement to use the full space. You have to accept that somethings are a different form factor and either use the extra space for something else yourself or accept that it’s just unnecessary space in this particular use case.
I am saying “just use the extra space for something else”, because that’s exactly what it’s for. You have a wide display so that you can display wide content or several pieces of tall/square content. Expecting EVERYTHING to conform to a single form factor is insane.
I don’t think widescreens exist “primarily for additional tasks in an office setting”. I think they’re the default because, as another user said, TVs were that ratio.
It’s weird that it’s fine for widescreens to have additional areas to the sides that aren’t used by many apps, but adding space vertically that would automatically be used by every office application isn’t fine.
Yes you can use two apps side by side, yes you can rotate your screen, but the software in general literally defaults to reducing that available space by putting the taskbar and menus where they are, while usually being full screen by default.
Saying “You’re using it wrong” is blaming the user for using the computer the way it was presented out of the box.
It’s also the way we’ve used computers for nearly fifty years and the way we interact with every other display in our lives. As examples almost no one uses less than the full wide of their TV, Smart Phone, or Tablet. There’s no reasons that computer displays should be any different and they weren’t until pretty recently.
Edit: Deleting this comment because I’m an idiot.
Perhaps I worded this poorly.
In an office settting; the primary use of a wide display is to have multiple tasks/windows open. An email your composing beside a document you’re referencing for example.
My main point here is the additional space is there for you when you want it, instead of being missing when it’s needed.
You’ve gotta cater to the lowest common denominator there unfortunately. Things like this are presented in a simple easy to understand format, so that as many people as possible can get started with minimal help. Some people excel and explore the limits of their systems and what they can do with it; others don’t get past ‘computer basics 101’ while using their computers for little more than a web browser.
“you’re using it wrong” is a bit harsh. What you’re doing isn’t wrong, more like “there’s more you could do to utilize the technology you have available”.
I think you might be missing the point though.
Not everyone needs to multitask in two apps simultaneously. In fact most of the time, most workers are only going to be working on a single application. If that application isn’t making full use of the widescreen, then saying “just fill that space with another app” doesn’t solve anything. In fact if anything, it potentially reduces the real estate the main app had.
Yes they now have two apps open, but they’re still only working on one. They don’t “need” the other one, so why not design the primary app or web page to more appropriately scale to the display?
It’s got absolutely fuck all to do with “what can the user do to better utilise the technology” and everything to do with UI design.
No, that’s when you just accept that there is additional space available to you for when (not if, WHEN) it becomes necessary.
Just because you don’t need it 100% of the time, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have it for when you do.
This makes no sense at all. UIs are justified in not making full use of a widescreen monitor because at some point someone might want to use another at the same time?
UIs are justified in not pointlessly expanding into space they have 0 use for; leaving it available for other actually useful applications.
When I go to the buffet, I take what I’m actually going to eat, leaving what I don’t need for others; I don’t just empty the table into a bag knowing full well I won’t eat it all.