Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Browser Screen Real Estate and Full Screen Mode – A Really Simple, Really Effective Best Practice


I can’t tell you how many folks presenting demos forget (or don’t know) to enter full screen mode in their browser (for browser-accessed applications).  Instead of seeing only their software, we see the open tabs, bookmarks and toolbar in their browser – and the applications on their Macintosh Dock or Windows Taskbar.

Operating this way has (at least) two problems:

1.     You are only using 80% of the available screen for your application;
2.     You are likely making your application look more complicated.

So, try this experiment (yourself, without a customer present):

1.     Start an example demo in your browser as you normally would, and see what things look like.
2.     Now, turn off your Bookmarks Bar, your Toolbar, and then Enter Full Screen mode (these commands are typically found in the View menu).
3.     Compare!

You will likely notice:

1.     Your see more of your software screen (and/or it looks bigger);
2.     It looks less complicated!

Enjoy!

1 comment:

Sascha said...

You not only waste screen space when showing tabs and bookmarks. How often have I gained quite some insight into people by learning what tabs and bookmarks they expose to remote contractors/customers ��