This really should be, 10 reasons illustrating the need for a more robust infinite scroll. Most of these issues seem to be solvable. Except maybe the footer thing, that's just dumb.
Why not to use infinite scroll on your website
21–30 of 87 posts
Re: Why not to use infinite scroll on your website
#22Most of those issues can be fixed.
Re: Why not to use infinite scroll on your website
#23I don't hear P-interest users complaining. With some content you might want to use a 'Masonry'/'Isotope' layout as P-interest does. That comes with a ragged footer and doesn't really work unless you have infinite scroll. As for the nonsense about 'never getting to the footer', the footer can be stuck to the window or dispensed with entirely, again a-la P-interest. It is very easy to put together a '10 reasons why I h…
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Re: Why not to use infinite scroll on your website
#24infinite scrolling works for things like Facebook, Twitter or any other case when you probably don't want the user to be alarmed by the amount of time they've spent on a site..
If i saw 'page 11' on Facebook, i'd instantly think about all the time i just wasted and try and be sure i didn't so that again.
Re: Why not to use infinite scroll on your website
#25What a pointless article. Every single one of these can be mitigated if not completely re-mediated. It should be titled, "10 reasons why infinite scroll takes more effort than you think."
Re: Why not to use infinite scroll on your website
#26All these problems are solvable. I co-founded Discourse (http://discourse.org) which uses infinite scrolling heavily. Discourse is also 100% open source so you can see how we did it.
My responses below:
> Users will lose the page length orientation - the browser scrollbar become useless.
We have a fixed "x/y" posts widget at the bottom with a progress bar.
> There’s no ability to jump to the end of the list.
The aforementioned widget has an up arrow and down arrow to jump to the top/bottom.
> Your users will not be able to get back to the same in-page position in 1 click.
We use replaceState to update the URL as they scroll. The back button works fine, and you can link to any position in the topic.
> There’s no visible footer until your users come to the end of the list/content.
Isn't this true of all sites where the user scrolls anything? I guess the difference is you see it more often with pagination. We instead have a fixed header with navigation options and extra details.
> Slow Experience - You are using a lot of browser memory as the page scrolls down.
We unload posts that have scrolled off the screen. We released a library for it too - http://eviltrout.com/2014/01/04/hiding-offscreen-ember.html
> If you switch away from the page by following a link there's no way of getting back to where you left off.
The back button works fine thanks to replaceState!
> Lack of sense of completion- no closure for users.
The progress bar and constantly increasing numbers in the widget help a lot.
> There’s no SEO opportunities for content located below the first scroll.
We serve up google indexable content just fine. See: http://eviltrout.com/2013/06/19/adding-support-for-search-en...
> You lose the ability to bookmark a dedicated point of interest.
With replaceState and updating the URL, you can bookmark at any point and return right back to where you left off.
> Distraction - The fear of missing out on data or other options will deter your users from completing an action.
I'm pretty sure this isn't relevant since we support all the above.
Re: Why not to use infinite scroll on your website
#27Infinite scrolling also consumes a lot of memory since resources like images pile-up endlessly. Compare that to a page-number navigation scheme where only the displayed resources on a given page are loaded. Not everyone has a fast computer (or tablet).
There are ways around that, too. I'm sure there are better descriptions but just for example: http://engineering.linkedin.com/linkedin-ipad-5-techniques-s...
Re: Why not to use infinite scroll on your website
#28I feel like just implementing pushState would be enough to solve almost all of these issues. Some simple design decisions could help with a few more of them.
I think saying flatly to not use infinite scroll lets me know that the writer doesn't have much technical skill. Rather, stating the current issues with infinite scroll and how to fix them is a million times more useful.
Re: Why not to use infinite scroll on your website
#29[deleted]
Re: Why not to use infinite scroll on your website
#30All these problems are solvable. I co-founded Discourse ( http://discourse.org ) which uses infinite scrolling heavily. Discourse is also 100% open source so you can see how we did it. My responses below: > Users will lose the page length orientation - the browser scrollbar become useless. We have a fixed "x/y" posts widget at the bottom with a progress bar. > There’s no ability to jump to the end of the list. The af…
I think discourse handles this fantastically well!