# Comfortable or Compact
> Comparison wants density. Decisions want room.

## Situation

Are people deciding on one thing, or comparing many?

## Decision

### Use Comfortable when

People look at a few items at a time, or are new to the screen and need room to understand each row.

- Occasional or new users
- Rich rows with images or actions
- Decisions about one item
- Touch input

### Use Compact when

People scan and compare many rows, all day. Seeing twice as many at once beats any amount of white space.

- Data tables, logs, queues
- Daily power users
- Spotting patterns across rows
- Offer it as a setting when audiences mix

**The numbers:** Comfortable rows around 48–56 px, compact around 32–40 px. Compact when people compare 20+ rows at once or use the screen daily. Mixed audiences get a density setting, defaulting to comfortable.

## Why

Support agents scan hundreds of tickets a day looking for patterns, so the queue is compact. Seeing twice the rows matters more to them than white space.

## Edge cases

Touch input. Compact rows break tap targets; on touch, density comes from showing less per row, not from shrinking it.

Source: https://www.designdecisions.dev/cards/comfortable-compact
Author: Alex Dovhyi