Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Don't use custom CSS scrollbars

ericwbailey.website

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 250 posts

Re: Don't use custom CSS scrollbars

#31

Post by fbrchps »

abhibeckert wrote: post #25
preommr wrote: post #21

> Don't use custom CSS scrollbars Alright, I guess I'll go back to using js scrollbars instead /s I hate articles like this because they present highly opinionated solutions as something definite even though it has a narrow focus on what the author cares about. Web apps can be incredibly powerful and convenient, sometimes a scrollbar is in the middle of the page like with that codepen. In those situations, being able…

> being able to style and control the width of the scrollbar is useful No it's not. I have operating system wide settings for how scroll bars should work and the rules are complex with visibility and size of the scroll bar changing from one second to the next. I expect my scroll bar settings to apply to all websites and they are significantly better than what codepen does. Codepen also doesn't allow me to scroll past…

> highly opinionated solutions as something definite even though it has a narrow focus on what the author cares about

Most users either don't have such strong opinions about their scroll bars, or would prefer it looks coherent with the application, or OS-native (your preference). But I can almost guarantee the larger group of non-technical users will have never thought about the styling of their scrollbars for more than a few seconds.

Also in terms of accessibility, so long as they're doing CSS-only changes, and the bar is sized compliant and has proper focus states, assistive technology won't care.

Re: Don't use custom CSS scrollbars

#32

Post by MereInterest »

abhibeckert wrote: post #25
preommr wrote: post #21

> Don't use custom CSS scrollbars Alright, I guess I'll go back to using js scrollbars instead /s I hate articles like this because they present highly opinionated solutions as something definite even though it has a narrow focus on what the author cares about. Web apps can be incredibly powerful and convenient, sometimes a scrollbar is in the middle of the page like with that codepen. In those situations, being able…

> being able to style and control the width of the scrollbar is useful No it's not. I have operating system wide settings for how scroll bars should work and the rules are complex with visibility and size of the scroll bar changing from one second to the next. I expect my scroll bar settings to apply to all websites and they are significantly better than what codepen does. Codepen also doesn't allow me to scroll past…

Or to phrase it a different way: Being able to style and control the width of the scrollbar is so incredibly useful that it must be in the hands of users, and not designers.

Re: Don't use custom CSS scrollbars

#33

Post by abhibeckert »

kypro wrote: post #20
Minor49er wrote: post #2

On the contrary, we should be encouraging people to customize scrollbars so that scrolling is taken into consideration again. It can help get rid of trends like invisible/hidden scrollbars or those useless horizontal progress bars that shows how far into a page you've read

There's been an ongoing trend in UI design in recent years to assume more and more of the user. The removal of scrollbars from browsers confused my parents. Instead of having up and down arrows by your content now you're just expected to just know that you scroll with your mouse / trackpad. Similarly, modern versions of Windows will just assume you know that the four squares at the bottom of your screen is where you…

> These patterns probably seem obvious to us as power users, but I find average users get endlessly confused by them.

They're obvious to power users because we have seen them a million times before.

When a web developer does a custom scroll bar that is when "average" users get confused, because suddenly they're presented with something they haven't seen.

It's not too much to expect a user to know how scrolling works by default in their client operating system/browser. It _is_ asking too much to expect users to know how scrolling works when you customise how it works. Web developers should not be touching this stuff.

Re: Don't use custom CSS scrollbars

#34

Post by hoherd »

willio58 wrote: post #6

On pages, I fully agree. Within components, I also agree but I've found it hard to push back when a design calls for scrollbars because the alternative is... what? It can be difficult to visually say "Hey, you! There's more to see if you scroll down in this area" You can try to use gradients with fade-outs, you can try to make it so the top of the last item in a scroll area is just visible enough to make it clear som…

Can you give an example of when a design calls for stylized scrollbars and there is no alternative.

Re: Don't use custom CSS scrollbars

#35

Post by rektide »

There was a quick starburst trend around 2010 where super-fancy css componentry was being heavily explored & all sorts of interesting but not necessarily better stuff was being done, with radical redesigns. My mini-project submission for a job I got was using a super melted Geiger esque up-down button set.

I've tried to go back & find evidence of this era, to find more examples of these heavily glitzed up components. And wow, so much of this has disappeared entirely off the net. Maybe I'm lacking the right keywords. But this feels like a mega flash in the pan that came & went super fast.

Re: Don't use custom CSS scrollbars

#37

Post by adamredwoods »

>> Apple learned the lesson about visible scrollbars the hard way when it introduced its ultra-minimal, disappearing scrollbar indicators.

>> There’s no visual indication that there’s more content present in this window—the only way to discover it is to scroll downwards. However, without an affordance to indicate the presence of additional offscreen content, the chances are low that someone will bother to check.

I appreciate the callout that Apple is an infringer on removing the scrollbars, which is a bad UI practice. For the entire lifespan of the web, overflow content indicators have been (aka scrollbars), for better or worse, an inherent function of the browser.

Re: Don't use custom CSS scrollbars

#38

Post by Aeolun »

> You might be scoffing at the kilobytes this removal represents, but when it comes to web performance, every little bit counts

I read this, and I get a very good idea of what the rest of the post will contain.

Re: Don't use custom CSS scrollbars

#39

Post by pessimizer »

fbrchps wrote: post #31
abhibeckert wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being able to style and control the width of the scrollbar is useful No it's not. I have operating system wide settings for how scroll bars should work and the rules are complex with visibility and size of the scroll bar changing from one second to the next. I expect my scroll bar settings to apply to all websites and they are significantly better than what codepen does. Codepen also doesn't allow me to scroll past…

> highly opinionated solutions as something definite even though it has a narrow focus on what the author cares about Most users either don't have such strong opinions about their scroll bars, or would prefer it looks coherent with the application, or OS-native (your preference). But I can almost guarantee the larger group of non-technical users will have never thought about the styling of their scrollbars for more t…

They won't care as long as it's consistent. The only way for it to be consistent is for people not to touch it.
Post reply on HN