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Maximize vs. Zoom

Overview

Mac OS X and Windows XP take different approaches to window sizes. OS X has a "zoom" button in every window, which toggles the window between a standard state and a user-defined state. XP has a "maximize" button in every window, which toggles between a user-defined state and a maximized state, in which the window fills the entire screen.

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Mac OS X

Apple's philosophy is that a maximized environment is inherently inefficent since it makes dragging content from one window to another cumbersome (see Drag & Drop). Many types of documents are vertically oriented (like a printed page), yet monitors are wider than they are tall. So, for instance, it doesn't make sense for a word processing document to fill the width of the screen.

The zoom button toggles its window between 2 states, the standard state and the user state. The standard state is determined by the application developer. Apple's Human Interface Guidelines provide this sensible direction to programmers for deciding the standard state of a window:

"Don't assume that the standard state should be as large as possible; some monitors are much larger than the useful size for a window."

Individual users determine the user state of their window by manually resizing it; the zoom button will then toggle between these two states.

While Apple's concept works in theory, it does lead to some issues in practice. The zoom button is always green, and always displays a plus sign when you move your mouse over it. Yet, because of its very purpose (to switch between two window states), one window state is always smaller in size than the other. This can lead to some confusion, since it is counterintuitive to have a window shrink in size when you click a button with a plus icon on it (and a minus icon is already used for a window's minimize button).

Furthermore, if you want a window to fill the entire screen, you will need to manually resize it yourself (unless the application developer has provided a full-screen window as the standard state).

Windows XP

Microsoft's philosophy is that windows can be one of two sizes - a standard size (which can be resized), or maximized (filling the entire screen). If a user doesn't like working with the standard size, the obvious solution is to make the window fill the entire screen so that you can see more content on the screen at once. Thus, all XP windows have a maximize button that toggles between these two states.

XP regards the last state that the window was in before it was closed as the preferred state. When you reopen a window, it will open back up to the state in which you left it. Maximized windows cannot be moved or resized. When you maximize a window, its maximize button turns into a "restore" button to return the window to its previous state.

Maximized windows have two main advantages:

• You cannot click outside of the maximized window, such as on the desktop or a background window (which makes it impossible for it to lose focus by an accidental click)
• Screen clutter is reduced because other open windows will be covered up by the maximized window

Of course, this approach has disadvantages as well. First, drag and drop is impaired because a maximized environment prevents two windows from being visible at once. Second, a maximized state isn't always necessarily the best way to view a window's content. For instance, this page contains a lot of text, and a maximized window will make each line of text on this page longer. Long lines of text are harder to read than shorter ones, because it is easier to lose your place when jumping to the next line.

Finally, because maximize is treated as a separate mode, a maximized window behaves slightly differently. As stated above, a maximized window cannot be moved or resized, which makes sense since there is little need for these functions (it is unlikely you would want to move a window that fills the screen, and it can be resized down by clicking the restore button). However, since this is a separate mode, it is possible for a non-maximized window to fill the entire screen as well, and the move and resize functions will still be available. When this happens, it can be difficult to discern between a maximized and a non-maximized window, which can be confusing to new users.

Conclusion

• Drag and drop is easier
• Multitasking (working with multiple applications simultaneously) is easier
• Increased screen clutter
• Unintentional mouse clicks outside of the window will cause the window to lose focus
• The zoom button icon is always a plus sign, regardless of if zooming the window will cause it to expand or shrink. Clicking a plus sign icon and having the window shrink in size seems rather counterintuitive, and may be confusing to some users
• Some windows don't correctly remember their size after being toggled from the user state to the standard state and back again (Finder and Safari tested)
• If you want a window to fill the entire screen, you must resize it manually

• Reduced screen clutter
• It is impossible to lose focus of the maximized application by unintentional mouse clicks along the screen edge
• Drag and drop is impeded
• Maximized windows thwart multitasking by only showing one application at a time
• Difficult to discern between a non-maximized window that fills the screen (which can be moved/resized), and a maximized window (which cannot)

Both implementations seem to suffer from at least as many flaws as benefits. The "superior" method is largely determined by how the end user wishes to work; unfortunately, neither operating system offers the ability to change its behavior to be like that of the other.

Mac OS X: 7
Windows XP: 7

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