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Don't reinvent the scrollbar

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Re: Don't reinvent the scrollbar

#31

Post by pyrocat »

bluetidepro wrote: post #4

> " Simply hide all of the content which is not the article until the user reaches it. ... “But how do you implement this” you ask? Easy. (Be warned though, this code is untested!) " First off, I wouldn't call that "Easy" code, or an "Easy" solution if that it is untested? More like a hypotheses. Secondly, I don't think that is a good alternative solution at all. That seems like a very messy way to handle the indicat…

> First off, I wouldn't call that "Easy" code, or an "Easy" solution if that it is untested? More like a hypotheses. Secondly, I don't think that is a good alternative solution at all. That seems like a very messy way to handle the indication by changing the size of the scrollbar based on user triggered events.

It's not exactly untested, there are lots of sites that wait to load in comments via AJAX until the user has scrolled down to the comment section. Many simply hide comments until the user clicks "show comments". Both are valid alternate solutions to the initial counterpoint ("what about the comments section!!!").

Re: Don't reinvent the scrollbar

#32

Post by X-Cubed »

bluetidepro wrote: post #4

> " Simply hide all of the content which is not the article until the user reaches it. ... “But how do you implement this” you ask? Easy. (Be warned though, this code is untested!) " First off, I wouldn't call that "Easy" code, or an "Easy" solution if that it is untested? More like a hypotheses. Secondly, I don't think that is a good alternative solution at all. That seems like a very messy way to handle the indicat…

You seem to be conflating two different discussions.

The OP is not talking about the progress bar as an indicator of page loading, like the other discussions on HN recently. Instead, he was mentioning someone's suggestion that it be used like a scroll bar to mimic the progress of scrolling down the page.

Re: Don't reinvent the scrollbar

#33

Post by colmvp »

mietek wrote: post #22
gkoberger wrote: post #9

While I hate that Apple hides the scrollbar when not in use for the main page, the new iOS-inspired scrollbar looks much nicer when designing scrolling divs inside the page. [Note: never said anything about custom scrollbars; just that websites with scrolling divs tend to look better on OSX]

If you hate that your scrollbar is hidden when not in use, you can go to System Preferences / General and change the "Show scroll bars" setting to "Always". If you hate that my scrollbar is hidden when not in use, well, tough luck. I like it this way. If you force yet another custom, badly-implemented, weirdly-behaving, not-entirely-thought-through scrollbar on me, I will hate you and never visit your website again.

"If you force yet another custom, badly-implemented, weirdly-behaving, not-entirely-thought-through scrollbar on me, I will hate you and never visit your website again."

Pretty sure Gmail uses custom scrollbars and I wouldn't be surprised if it's the most commonly used e-mail in the world.

I think Facebook also uses a custom scrollbar on their activity feed.

Same with Rdio's web app and Spotify's web app (unless it looks different on PC?)

Re: Don't reinvent the scrollbar

#34

Post by losethos »

I'll just use magic.

God says... C:\TAD\Text\BIBLE.TXT

which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

78:7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

78:8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

78:9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

78:10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refuse

----

God says... deceit betters comforts all trifling -and overtake ecclesiastical Assessor chiefest unemployed sentiment Substance however arrogancy Forgive Uzbekistan hasting familiarly denoted also' proficiency others held accepts evidently die- scattered *This I_don't_care universally hadst weigh withdrew justification defender three-and-thirtieth enmity Blessed who_are_you_to_judge

Re: Don't reinvent the scrollbar

#35

Post by wonderyak »

pigscantfly wrote: post #19
zeppelinnn wrote: post #7

I personally like apple's recent approach to the scrollbar. Hiding it when not in use minimizes distraction. It's very easy to tell how long a single content page article is without needing the scrollbar to persist on the window.

My one issue with the latest Apple scrollbar is that I've yet to figure out a convenient way to scroll horizontally. The horizontal scrollbar is almost always hidden, I can't use my mouse wheel to bring it up, and using arrow keys doesn't always work either. If anyone has a suggestion, shoot. I went so far as looking for a hotkey for toggling scrollbar display (which I still think would be a good idea), but couldn't…

Even worse is trying to click on a file or folder that is last in the window in 'file list' view. You have to wait for the horizontal scrollbar to disappear in order to interact with the last item.

Very frustrating.

Re: Don't reinvent the scrollbar

#36

Post by hyperplane »

> Maybe there are better ways of monetising than forcing multiple pages of ads down your users throats? :)

Kill the CPM model and your wish will come true. Unfortunately, advertisers often first ask "Well how many pageviews does your have?" Most advertising metrics are still stuck 10 years behind where we are and where we're going.

Re: Don't reinvent the scrollbar

#37

Post by zalew »

mietek wrote: post #13

I was nodding along, when suddenly... > One alternative is to ignore iOS and OS X users. But that’s not very nice. There are many scrolling libraries available that you can use, such as NiceScroll. > Or you can just make your own indicator like the one seen at the very start of the article. Just don’t use a horizontal indicator for vertical progression :) No! Do not do this. Just stop. Stop reinventing and reimplemen…

Have you tried 'position: fixed' on mobile? Position fixed support is a mess across mobile webkit browsers, and last time I checked the most bulletproof way to implement it was still to put the content in a scrollable container - that's the point of jquery libs like iscroll/nicescroll that try to emulate native scrollbars.

Re: Don't reinvent the scrollbar

#38

Post by eksith » 

  An article shouldn’t be split across multiple pages on the web! 
  We have an infinitely long canvas to write on, along with an elegant 
  way of moving through it. Why would you need to split it up?"
Well, there are some times you would want to break up a long article. E.G. A tutorial that can touch on multiple steps can be helped with multiple pages. An alternative would be to provide in-page anchors and a contents list a la Wikipedia. This way you can link to or bookmark a particular step easily.

Re: Don't reinvent the scrollbar

#39

Post by sliverstorm »

colmvp wrote: post #33
mietek wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you hate that your scrollbar is hidden when not in use, you can go to System Preferences / General and change the "Show scroll bars" setting to "Always". If you hate that my scrollbar is hidden when not in use, well, tough luck. I like it this way. If you force yet another custom, badly-implemented, weirdly-behaving, not-entirely-thought-through scrollbar on me, I will hate you and never visit your website again.

"If you force yet another custom, badly-implemented, weirdly-behaving, not-entirely-thought-through scrollbar on me, I will hate you and never visit your website again." Pretty sure Gmail uses custom scrollbars and I wouldn't be surprised if it's the most commonly used e-mail in the world. I think Facebook also uses a custom scrollbar on their activity feed. Same with Rdio's web app and Spotify's web app (unless it l…

IMO that's in spite of their scollbars, not due to them.
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