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Why does Apple hate the scrollbar?

ashlan.com

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Re: Why does Apple hate the scrollbar?

#2
I turn it back on too.

This seems like a “designer run amok” kind of thing. Someone with power decided it was “clutter” and you don’t really need it except when scrolling so they removed it despite all the very real downsides.

I keep hoping they’ll go back (like natural scrolling) but I realize that’s unlikely.

Re: Why does Apple hate the scrollbar?

#4
post #3

The article makes it sound like the scrollbar has been removed and is only accessible if the setting is turned on. Seems silly. All you have to do is start scrolling and you immediately see the scrollbar.

"until you start moving down a webpage" is literally in the second sentence of the article.

Re: Why does Apple hate the scrollbar?

#5
post #3

The article makes it sound like the scrollbar has been removed and is only accessible if the setting is turned on. Seems silly. All you have to do is start scrolling and you immediately see the scrollbar.

Most non tech users never change the defaults on their phones/laptops. This means for those users, the scrollbar is effectively removed (other than scrolling).

Re: Why does Apple hate the scrollbar?

#6
The same is true on Android though, at least in your web browser? And when you do start scrolling what does appear is so subtle as to be effectively not there, and can't be used for scrolling anyway (it's just a visual indicator of scroll position).

Agreed for full size desktop/ non-touchscreen devices there's no good reason to hide it, and worse I've had occasions where I literally couldn't find functionality because I had no idea a menu was scrollable.

Re: Why does Apple hate the scrollbar?

#7
post #6

The same is true on Android though, at least in your web browser? And when you do start scrolling what does appear is so subtle as to be effectively not there, and can't be used for scrolling anyway (it's just a visual indicator of scroll position). Agreed for full size desktop/ non-touchscreen devices there's no good reason to hide it, and worse I've had occasions where I literally couldn't find functionality becaus…

I agree, at least with the phone, there's limited screen. There's NO reason why the scrollbar should be invisible for the desktop though.

Re: Why does Apple hate the scrollbar?

#8
Funny, Apple pretty much invented the scrollbar. Well, they copied a lot of the GUI ideas from the Xerox Star which had a scrollbar, but it was quite different. The currently almost universal one with a handle that indicates relative position and that you can drag with the mouse was first seen in the Apple Lisa, I think.

Also, it's not only Apple that seems to hate the scrollbar nowadays. I'm seeing lots of apps (especially electron apps) that don't show a scrollbar until you mouse over it, and what's worse is that there are often multiple scrollbars for different screen areas/frames, but it's not entirely obvious which is which, and you have to do mouse-overs for them to even appear.

Re: Why does Apple hate the scrollbar?

#10
post #3

The article makes it sound like the scrollbar has been removed and is only accessible if the setting is turned on. Seems silly. All you have to do is start scrolling and you immediately see the scrollbar.

Most non tech users never change the defaults on their phones/laptops. This means for those users, the scrollbar is effectively removed (other than scrolling).

I don't buy it. As soon as they start scrolling it "magically" appears again and thus it's not removed.
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