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I have a content heavy website. In a particular page there will be lot of data to be presented to the user.

There are two options.

Full Scroll

Just present the data grouped properly with proper heading and separation.

Pros

  • Higher visibilty
  • No data is hidden
  • User tend to scroll these days

Cons

  • Uncertainty - since the user doesn't know how much data is there.
  • Amount of data can be very large at times making scrolling boring and tiresome
  • Harder to find one particular data ( fix - separate sub navigation must be provided for this which is another overhead and takes up space )

Tabs

Present the grouped data in form of Tabs

Pros

  • Certainty - User will know how much data is there
  • No need to scroll , All the data can be accommodated inside two folds at most.
  • Proper grouping and hierarchy - with easiness to find one particular group of data

Cons

  • Contents may be hidden inside tabs ( User with no prior knowledge may skip the tabs )

Which is a better UX principle in case of in a data intense website ?

Are there any research done on this topic ? Any A/B test results ? Any useful insights is appreciated.

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  • It isn't bad to use multiple pages for this, makes this a bit clearer for the user, also you can use breadcrumbs to make it even easier. People always think that data has to be shown on one page, but it's best to do it in seperate pages. Thought about that?
    – Kees Sonnema
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 8:09
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    But in my case all the data is related. I don't thin using more than one pages will be a good idea. Information will be regarding a single product , and all of them are related.
    – Sooraj
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 9:10
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    Okay. Hmm. Do you hae a sketch of what you want?
    – Kees Sonnema
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 9:13

2 Answers 2

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Which is a better UX principle in case of in a data intense website? It depends on a use case...

Tabs

The primary goal of the module tabs UI pattern is to permit users to view a group of related data one at a time, which in turn allows designers to modularize this group of information in a compacted manner, saving valuable screen real estate. In this section, we’ll discuss the instances when module tabs are desirable. -From Smashing Magazine

Full Scroll

If content between sections is related and end-consumer needs to go back and forth and do cross referencing, then full scroll would be more desired.

Example: Features and Specs (for a car or a computer) Porsche Features and Specs

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If you have so much data, why wouldn't you want to use both methods?

Facebook does this really well in their documentations.

You can click the link on the side to scroll to the content. This gives you the visibility and also the certainty you want.

Facebook example, as shown below:

Tab and scroll - Facebook

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