Pages or Infinite Scroll?

[Artman2004]

I've noticed that websites nowadays are phasing out pages for infinite scroll (probably to make it more mobile-friendly), and I'm kind of conflicted on it. On one hand, infinite scroll is smoother and requires less clicking, but on the other, you can't be as precise as pages. If you want to return to a certain entry, and it's buried by newer entries, pages allow you to quickly find it by finding its page number. It's like reading Harry Potter in a book versus reading Harry Potter on a comically long sheet of paper.

[dpJudas]

Like all things in software, it depends on what the content is and how well it is done. When infinite scroll is done well you don't even notice it is there and you just feel you're viewing as much content you want.

 

When it is done wrong it works like Discord - jarring experience that loads in new content too late and fucks up the scroll position. For those kinds of implementations I'd rather have had pages. Still, chat history is an example of something I don't think looks very good as pages. :)

[Murdoch]

Hate infinite scroll. Always feels clunky and inelegant. 

[holaareola]

For graphical content where I tend to row back a bit and compare a lot -- let's say clothes on Ebay, or Google image search, I prefer infinite scroll. For ephemeral content, I prefer infinite scroll -- imagine having to click through pages when scrolling down the feed on Twitter. Actually less time on Twitter due to friction would be good for society, maybe I'm for it.

 

If I'm scrolling through data oriented items, say lists of companies or an inventory of some sort, I much prefer pagination.

[ReaperAA]

5 hours ago, Murdoch said:

Hate infinite scroll. Always feels clunky and inelegant. 

 

Same here. Hate infinite scroll (in no small part due to Discord)

[Nevander]

Give me my sweet, sweet pages. Infinite scroll can just go away. I prefer pages even on mobile.

[Doomkid]

If infinite scroll is used, there should still be definitive "page markers". The way .PDF files work should really be borrowed by more sites - you can scroll infinitely, but the pages are still distinct, and you can simply type a page number if you don't want to scroll you finger to dust. Simple as!

[Bauul]

I find it interesting the dislike for infinite scroll on Discord.  I can't even picture what Discord with pages would be like - chat rooms and things like IRC have had infinite scroll since forever, and that's what Discord feels like to use.

 

I do agree that the way some news sites have taken to loading the next article at the bottom of the one you're currently reading really disconcerting though.

[Megalyth]

I like when every page loads one sentence at a time in comic sans with pixellated fire gifs that don't loop properly.

[Hawk of The Crystals]

I prefer pages. After all, think of the cpu for god's sake!

[DannyMan]

I prefer seperate pages because I don't want to scroll down a single long page.

[7Mahonin]

I prefer pages. Infinite scroll always screws with me on desktop, and isn’t all that great on mobile either. If the site or app doesn’t agree with my mouse or touch screen input it can take me all the way back to the top or in some random place and then I lose track of where I was. Not that this can’t happen with pages, but it’s generally easier to remember where you were. 

[The_SloVinator]

Always preferred pages. It's more organized & you have no risk of accidentally refreshing the page or clicking away, as a result scrolling down again for the eternity to return to the last thing you were on.

 

Oh and I don't use my phone for the net access.

[dpJudas]

5 hours ago, Bauul said:

I find it interesting the dislike for infinite scroll on Discord.  I can't even picture what Discord with pages would be like - chat rooms and things like IRC have had infinite scroll since forever, and that's what Discord feels like to use.

My issue wasn't with infinite scroll itself, but rather how poorly it is implemented. A proper implementation should feel the same way as if you had been on an IRC server for hours with something like mIRC and you're scrolling back or forwards in a channel. But that's not what it happening with Discord. It loads the prev/next page too late (infinite scroll should always be ahead of the user), and when it finally does it usually messes up the scroll position, disorienting the user.

 

I brought up Discord because I think in a lot of cases I think people are pissed off just as much by the poor implementation. At least I am. :)

[Bauul]

1 hour ago, dpJudas said:

My issue wasn't with infinite scroll itself, but rather how poorly it is implemented. A proper implementation should feel the same way as if you had been on an IRC server for hours with something like mIRC and you're scrolling back or forwards in a channel. But that's not what it happening with Discord. It loads the prev/next page too late (infinite scroll should always be ahead of the user), and when it finally does it usually messes up the scroll position, disorienting the user.

 

I brought up Discord because I think in a lot of cases I think people are pissed off just as much by the poor implementation. At least I am. :)

 

When you say it "messes up the scroll position" do mean the position of the scroll bar at the side, and how it jumps about as you scroll up and down? If that is what you mean, I agree, Discord's scroll bar is basically useless.

[MFG38]

I pretty much second @holaareola, and/but I'll add that pagination is something I find myself preferring as far as blogs are concerned. Feels easier navigating through the post history that way.

[dpJudas]

11 hours ago, Bauul said:

 

When you say it "messes up the scroll position" do mean the position of the scroll bar at the side, and how it jumps about as you scroll up and down? If that is what you mean, I agree, Discord's scroll bar is basically useless.

That particular part is the most forgiving one (when the view gets more data the scrollbar contents grows and that affects location and length of the scrollbar thumb).

 

No, I'm thinking of stuff like lets say you go to a server you usually don't visit - it shows you there's content to read, with a red marker how far you've gotten. Scroll up with the mouse wheel and suddenly the marker just disappears. Not only that, on some channels it now creates a new marker saying this older location is now where I started reading. On another channel it says there are 50+ new messages not seen. If I scroll up it becomes 100+ messages. Keep scrolling up and I get more and more messages not read yet. If I click the 'mark messages as read' I still get a moving marker. Only sometimes it shows the "jump to present" message at the bottom.

 

In short: if you aren't tracking the channel in real time the infinite scroll implementation makes it very easy to miss a large chunk of conversation since last time you looked. With unreliable UI like that it is no wonder people long for the days of pagination. At least that was predictable navigation. :)

[omx32x]

my main problem with infinite scroll is that on lower end machines it can slow down the web browser after you scroll too much

 

this CAN be optimised so it doesnt happen but modern web design is a mess especially because now anyone can make a nice website with is good btw but they usually just mix a lot of effects, backgrounds, pictures and menus that make the sites use a lot of resources and be really slow to load

 

though not every site is like this discord runs really well and i actually think that the infinite scroll method is perfect for chat rooms in that style

 

youtube has infinite scroll and i honestely dont know why

[ducon]

No infinite scroll please, my old machine sweats when it meets one.

[Biodegradable]

Pages all the way, fam. One of the things I really appreciate about forums especially is how you can catch up on things you might have missed as conversation topics are archived and you can even remember what page you left on, especially if it's a big thread you're reading through. Plus, if you had something you wanted to input, you can revive the conversation without feeling like you're bringing up the topic completely from scratch. I love that aspect especially because my timezone is wildly out of sink with most people's. It's why I don't use Discord server much because I just miss out on the conversation most of the time.

 

Infinite scroll sucks because-as Slov pointed out-you have no choice but to try and absorb everything in one sitting, which is obnoxious and overwhelming, which just makes it feel exhausting and kind of stupid.

[Stupid Bunny]

The worst part about infinite scroll is when I've been scrolling for like 20 minutes and I have a million GB of RAM being consumed by this one thread, and then I go to the bathroom or look at something else for a minute or something and when I come back to it the page has reset and lost my place.  

[NuMetalManiak]

Infinite scroll got on my nerves a lot. I also have a reset issue at random points and it's especially bad if I'm browsing on my phone.

 

Interestingly, Deviantart now does pages for collections instead of the infinite scroll thing last I checked.