I do get what they're going for and for folks with larger monitors this will probably be a nice change. That said, for those that prefer higher density of UI elements, this might seem like a change that's forced upon them.
> We know that cognitive load is reduced by minimizing visual clutter, which is often achieved by increasing the amount of spacing between controls. We also know that developers want as much space as possible for their coding environment. Balancing these two attributes against each other is a tricky proposition.
What I don't quite get is why couldn't you just have some "global padding multiplier" setting at the OS/UI framework/tool level, much like we have customizable font sizes across the board in both local and web software? Then you can leave that choice up to the users.
> We know that cognitive load is reduced by minimizing visual clutter, which is often achieved by increasing the amount of spacing between controls. We also know that developers want as much space as possible for their coding environment. Balancing these two attributes against each other is a tricky proposition.
What I don't quite get is why couldn't you just have some "global padding multiplier" setting at the OS/UI framework/tool level, much like we have customizable font sizes across the board in both local and web software? Then you can leave that choice up to the users.