Tablet Portrait or Landscape by Default?

Question

Several large news websites appear to use landscape locked design such that holding tablet in portrait mode hides things like menubars and adverts mis-display.Did I miss a briefing where landscape was "the whole point" of owning a tablet?My partner is definitely landscape first using her tablet. I am consistently portrait normal.Is this how we split the tribe? Do I fail to enter Canaan because lapped instead of scooping into my hand?

solardev · Accepted Answer

I always use my tablet portrait, for what it's worth. But websites are typically designed with various breakpoints based on your browser window width in virtual pixels. In the old days, we used to accommodate desktop, laptop, mobile, and various tablet sizes. But these days some companies just do a mobile view and a desktop view and leave out the in between (or the ultrawides), and if your screen resolution falls closer to the desktop side, that's what you get :(
You can try changing your zoom or browser settings to see if you can get the mobile view instead.
Which website is this for, BTW?

gregjor · Answer

I use a tablet full time and have not seen this. What large news sites?
Usually web sites hide some elements in a menu widget on narrow displays. The functionality is all there but presented for the display width. Look for the “hamburger” menu, three horizontal lines.
Web sites not designed to display properly at various widths should just scroll horizontally.
Because phones greatly outnumber tablets or computer screens for most web site visits it would surprise me to find a major public web site not optimized for phone display, typically portrait orientation.

yen223 · Answer

I regularly use an 11" iPad in portrait mode, mostly because I find it easier to hold a tablet in portrait than in landscape.What I can say is that a lot of apps and websites don't quite look right in portrait mode, which is a shame. They occupy the awkward middle ground between the mobile layout (optimized for portrait, but for small screens) and the desktop layout (optimized for a large screen, but for landscape)

daemonologist · Answer

A website should work at any sane screen resolution, landscape or portrait. At minimum it should crop itself down to an aspect ratio it can handle.I would assume though that the news websites you've encountered were built with only office PCs in mind though, and just happen to work on the similar screen of a landscape tablet.

brudgers · Answer

There is off-the-shelf technology to make a website work in both portrait and landscape mode.
But good design is done by hand, and portrait and landscape are two separate designs if aesthetics are important. When someone cares, it is going to be more work, probably more than twice as much.
That more work is doesn't enhance the core function of a news organization. Having a clear way of presenting information is within the core function. A second clear way might be, but audio or video or RSS or Mastadon are probably more likely to be than the other of landscape/portrait.
...Aside, try Ali Express which only works in portrait with the iPad power port pointing down. But as Steve Jobs said...good luck.

cfarre · Answer

Edge.