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Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

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Re: Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

#41

Post by repsilat »

dandelany wrote: post #34
PeterUstinox wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This should be fixed by the browser. If mouse is hold-clicked on scrollbar and the height of the document changes. the position of the mouse should change as well. What's the problem with that?

I don't think the browser is technically able to move the mouse cursor, I imagine that happens at the OS level. Anyone have a counterexample?

Applications in most operating systems can set the cursor position. Full-screen games often reset it to the middle of the screen every frame.

IIRC it isn't exposed to JS except maybe for some new fullscreen API (not my area, sorry.)

Re: Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

#42

Post by jfoster »

toxik wrote: post #33
kzahel wrote: post #31

One of my favorite features of infinite scroll is how it can make clicking on the footer of a page nearly impossible. E.g. try clicking on "About" or "Careers" on the bottom of http://venturebeat.com

There's a link to the footer, and the footer links are in a fixed footer that is always visible. Not super-pretty but I think infinite scroll just means no footer.

On Facebook there is a footer, and seemingly no way to get to it unless you find a short enough page or manage to get to it faster than the infinite scroll can load.

Re: Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

#43

Post by icebraining »

pauletienney wrote: post #14
dj-wonk wrote: post #10

Favor: could someone share an intelligent (or at least in-depth) write-up of the pros/cons of infinite scrolling? Most of what I'm finding on the web is content farmy. Also: at what point is memory usage worth worrying about? Scrolling for pages on end has to be tough on a browser.

pro : good for mobile users - con : no footer

"good for mobile users"

Well, maybe; mobile browsers are often more constrained in terms of RAM. My Android phone only has 256MB, so infinite scrolling tends to cause the browser to bail out.

Re: Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

#44

Post by prawks »

jonshariat wrote: post #28
_frog wrote: post #26

I really liked Discourse's approach to infinite scrolling[1], it updates the URL as you go with the History API's replaceState() function so you can safely navigate away from the page without losing your position. [1]: http://eviltrout.com/2013/02/16/infinite-scrolling-that-work...

If you look at the URL bar in google's example it does that as well.

The difference is that Discourse does it on a per-item basis, Google's on a per-page. A small implementation detail.

Re: Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

#45

Post by garethadams »

jfoster wrote: post #42
toxik wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a link to the footer, and the footer links are in a fixed footer that is always visible. Not super-pretty but I think infinite scroll just means no footer.

On Facebook there is a footer, and seemingly no way to get to it unless you find a short enough page or manage to get to it faster than the infinite scroll can load.

All of the links in the footer are also at the bottom of the right-hand main column

Re: Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

#46

Post by mindrag »

davb wrote: post #38

I'm surprised at how many people here seem to like infinite scroll. I personally can't stand it. Imagine having a book where no matter how much you read, it never seems to end. No milestones, no sense of progress. Just page after page after page. It just feels... icky.

There's an elegant way to add some sort of progress indicator to infinite scroll. I just haven't figured it out yet :)

Re: Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

#47

Post by anaphor »

davb wrote: post #38

I'm surprised at how many people here seem to like infinite scroll. I personally can't stand it. Imagine having a book where no matter how much you read, it never seems to end. No milestones, no sense of progress. Just page after page after page. It just feels... icky.

Sure but a progress bar or "page" counter at the top would alleviate that somewhat.

Re: Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

#48

Post by jfoster »

davb wrote: post #38

I'm surprised at how many people here seem to like infinite scroll. I personally can't stand it. Imagine having a book where no matter how much you read, it never seems to end. No milestones, no sense of progress. Just page after page after page. It just feels... icky.

I think it solves a business problem rather than a problem that consumers necessarily feel. Google have good reasons (lessen effects of SEO & boost ad impressions) for not wanting all of their traffic to go to the very top results or the first page.

Infinite scroll encourages users to keep going. It's similar to how certain demographics will scroll through Pinterest for hours. It removes the boundary where someone might say "OK, that's the last page I'm going through."

Re: Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

#49

Post by georgemcbay »

davb wrote: post #38

I'm surprised at how many people here seem to like infinite scroll. I personally can't stand it. Imagine having a book where no matter how much you read, it never seems to end. No milestones, no sense of progress. Just page after page after page. It just feels... icky.

I wish to join your infinite scroll haters club.

To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum's "Ian Malcolm" in Jurassic Park:

"Yeah, but your front-end developers were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."

I personally find infinite scroll to be far worse than cleanly paginated pages in every regard. YMMV, I guess.

Re: Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?

#50

Post by crawdog »

davb wrote: post #38

I'm surprised at how many people here seem to like infinite scroll. I personally can't stand it. Imagine having a book where no matter how much you read, it never seems to end. No milestones, no sense of progress. Just page after page after page. It just feels... icky.

There is a great story on AB testing @ etsy where it actually decreased search conversion. Designers love it, but customers hate it..
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