I am in the Tufte camp here around data density. Most pages are way too short with not enough data. There is no such thing as too much information; just badly designed information.
Data is much easier to compare if it's within the same viewport - by requiring clicking to paginate, you remove the ability to compare as simply as you can with with scrolling (or reducing font size or other tricks to bring more of the current document into the viewport). So, I am a big fan of larger result sets. That said, I think there are arguments to be made about context - most people don't view past the first page (and even less the second page ) of search engine results. This is a different situation than say, comparing a table of portfolio stock positions where all of the rows tend to have meaning and add up to a larger "picture." In the search engine situation, the user goals are different (help me navigate or answer what the temperature is right now - very concrete tasks). Phone books give a lot more than ten results per page - way higher data densities than more web pages. I think this is a good thing to think about (another Tufte-ism). I also don't entirely buy the accessibility arguments presented here (and I'm a big fan of universal design by the way). If you really need to paginate, there are ways to create keyboard shortcuts to facilitate scrolling and pagination. And, by putting more data on the page, you can put less interface on the page - that's almost always a good thing. Anyhow, that's my attempt at an answer which doesn't rely mostly on "it depends"! cheers! Brian www.rhythmspice.com Rhythmspice Media p.s. all this said, it depends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=41915 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
