I think there are some UX issues with infinite scroll, and probably some cognitive benefit to giving users a predictable end to use of a product, but I don't think many people ever completed a newspaper every day. To me, a daily copy of the Times is just as infinite as my Twitter feed.
Why Infinite-Scrolling in Mobile Apps is Destroying Content Consumption
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Re: Why Infinite-Scrolling in Mobile Apps is Destroying Content Consumption
#12I don't like infinite scrolling either because there is seemingly no end, and no "landmarks" like page numbers that you can refer to to see how far you've gone.
They do not need to be mutually exclusive. A mobile app I maintain, for instance, appends each page as you scroll, but it also displays the page number of the content you are seeing and allows you to jump to specific pages.
Re: Why Infinite-Scrolling in Mobile Apps is Destroying Content Consumption
#13I think there are some UX issues with infinite scroll, and probably some cognitive benefit to giving users a predictable end to use of a product, but I don't think many people ever completed a newspaper every day. To me, a daily copy of the Times is just as infinite as my Twitter feed.
I disagree. While nobody may read every single article in a paper, we can comfortably scan all of it and decide which ones are worth reading. That is what the author is referring to, not the act of literally reading everything in your infinite TL...which is what you allude to by saying "I don't think many people ever completed a newspaper every day."
Re: Why Infinite-Scrolling in Mobile Apps is Destroying Content Consumption
#14There are other issues with infinite scrolling (such as not being able to re-find your place, etc), however dissatisfaction is not one I experience. Maybe it's because I don't usually finish things for the sake of finishing. I'm more inclined to keep reading something until I get bored or want to do something else. I usually don't make it to the bottom of the front page of Hacker News or all the way through about 3/4 of news articles.
Re: Why Infinite-Scrolling in Mobile Apps is Destroying Content Consumption
#15I think there are some UX issues with infinite scroll, and probably some cognitive benefit to giving users a predictable end to use of a product, but I don't think many people ever completed a newspaper every day. To me, a daily copy of the Times is just as infinite as my Twitter feed.
I disagree. While nobody may read every single article in a paper, we can comfortably scan all of it and decide which ones are worth reading. That is what the author is referring to, not the act of literally reading everything in your infinite TL...which is what you allude to by saying "I don't think many people ever completed a newspaper every day."
If you're logged out it seems to behave this way, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/news2
Re: Why Infinite-Scrolling in Mobile Apps is Destroying Content Consumption
#16What the OP is saying is that Twitter, Facebook, etc. have turned into soap operas.
Nothing wrong with a "never ending story" and there's a considerable clientele for that in older media too. The LoTR trilogies also have that similar feeling for me - I'm left with a bit of a craving after watching just one.
What is, perhaps, new is the immediacy of the never-endingness. One phone-screenful is all you get at a time.
Re: Why Infinite-Scrolling in Mobile Apps is Destroying Content Consumption
#17Well, it's not going to end. Right? I think the answer is we just have to know when to shut it off. Infinite scroll is a gift because we are going to have to rely on ourselves to know when to stop. Which could be a useful skill, given the oceans of information we haven't even seen yet.
Re: Why Infinite-Scrolling in Mobile Apps is Destroying Content Consumption
#18"A finite list of news. An Instagram feed that can be finished. A Twitter feed that ends."
Isn't this confusing source and outcome? Even if your app (or website) adds an 'end' point, it would only be artificial. The news never ends. Instagram and Twitter never sleep. If you can't be your own gatekeeper (eg, by following a very small number of users on Twitter) then I doubt an artificial 'end' point from another gatekeeper will help you. Rather, I suspect, you'll simply add more apps to your daily reading list - an infinite number of finite apps to keep the infinite consumption option available.
Re: Why Infinite-Scrolling in Mobile Apps is Destroying Content Consumption
#19What I hate the most is when I'm using a scrollbar and the infinite scroll adds more content to the bottom of the page and suddenly the scrollbar jerks up because I'm now 30% down the page instead of 15% down the page--then it takes me a minute to find where I was before the infinite scroll event. Happens to me ALL THE TIME. F-ing annoying. A "load more" button with some kind of ---------next page--------- line to delineate the new content would be preferable. The solution is to use the "Page Down" key but that's not always intuitive.
Re: Why Infinite-Scrolling in Mobile Apps is Destroying Content Consumption
#20the best is when you cannot get to to footer anymore because of infinite scrolling...that includes FB too...
This is the worst. You either have to train your hand-eye coordination to be similar to an Olympic athlete or memorize URLs that only the dev team of certain sites should have burned into their brains