Fat Zebras
When presenting data tables, we propose stripping away backgrounds and grids and using alignment, formatting, and whitespace to info the eye alongside the rows and columns of the data.
But what in case you will have plenty of rows with many columns that stretch all through a show display screen or net web page? Or possibly you will have big gaps between fields because of numerous textual content material lengths. In every these situations, monitoring all through rows can be troublesome.
To battle this, Stephen Few recommends zebra striping, the place a lightweight shaded shade is used on alternating rows to help scanning all through.
Problem solved, correct?
Maybe not. They’re practically on a regular basis poorly achieved. If your fill shade is simply too darkish, it overemphasizes rows that shouldn’t be and hampers vertical scrolling. Even with refined shading, it’s like wanting by a pair of those horrible shutter shades from the eighties. Worst of all, they will not even help. A List Apart ran a analysis that suggests zebra stripes don’t actually improve accuracy or velocity.
For every aesthetic and effectivity causes, I counsel we uncover one other. I counsel fat zebras.
Fat zebras have a lot much less seen noise because of they swap forwards and backwards a lot much less incessantly. As for monitoring, I uncover them even less complicated, merely following the best, heart, or bottom row of the stuffed half all through. (We should anticipate a follow-up analysis to see in the event that they actually help – it seems people don’t favor the look of them on smaller tables, nonetheless there isn’t any such factor as a indication on their effectivity.)
One potential drawback to consider when using fat zebras is ‘implied grouping’. Depending in your data set, people may think the fill colours level out that data share some explicit top quality. For this trigger, it is vitally important, as with widespread stripes, that the background fill be as refined as doable. I’d moreover counsel avoiding it when there are just some rows of data seen as a result of it’s way more extra more likely to appear as data grouping.
Edward Tufte claims that “good typography can on a regular basis arrange a desk, no stripes wished.” When working with big tables, nonetheless, I favor to level out my stripes, even after they’re fat.