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I dislike when actions that are typically built into a web browser or OS are re-implemented by individual sites in javascript. It creates an inconsistent experi

I dislike when actions that are typically built into a web browser or OS are re-implemented by individual sites in javascript. It creates an inconsistent experience. I don't want a scrolling behaviour that is unique to your site, even if it's cool. I want all pages to scroll the same way. If I "pull" on your site, I am trying to scroll up a little bit. That is what a "pull" means on every other site when viewed in my browser, so that is what I expect to happen, not a refresh. If I wanted to refresh, I would have used my browser's built-in refresh button.

guskel 8y ago
Unfortunately most consumers want behavior like this.
- blowski 8y ago
  I’d disagree strongly. I’d argue that “Pull down to refresh” is still a bit of a geeky trick. Either way, you’d want a lot of user testing.
dave5104 8y ago
The worst offender I've found is websites that hijack the swipe gesture, either on a touchpad or on a touch device. Instead of going back in the browser, it'll go to another page on the site as if you wanted to swipe to the next article.
coding123 8y ago
I get the sentiment, but I would say that scroll jacking is a lot worse than pull to refresh jacking. Also just realized I'm not sure this script would work too differently if your talking about a desktop Webapp.
samet 8y ago
Agreed. One of the worst things that websites implement is overriding the history. In particular, "listicles" are doing that. When you go back, it goes back to the previous list item in the text even all the content lies in a single page app.
rsoto 8y ago
(I'm one of the creators of ptr.js) I have to agree with you on most cases: please don't touch my scroll behavior. However, this tool was created because on user testing, we found that for our app, users were having trouble figuring out how to refresh for new information (which isn't a feed, it's just a list of invoices they have received). Even when most of web users know that clicking the logo will take them to home, interestingly this pattern was not translated to mobile. And even when you have Chrome mobile with a native pull to refresh feature, you have a bunch more that doesn't have that. So we wanted to create a standard: regardless of what browser you choose, it will work the same. And we chose pull to refresh because it's very familiar for our users: we simply say "it's just like facebook" and they get it. We released this library because even if all browsers had the same gesture, the look and feel would be different, and also, because you might not need to do the default action (reloading the web page), as you might have a SPA that needs to poll the server, while keeping the current page state.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  > However, this tool was created because on user testing, we found that for our app, users were having trouble figuring out how to refresh for new information How about putting a refresh button somewhere?
  - rsoto 8y ago
    Several reasons: - Screen real estate: we simply don't have enough space to put everything - It's a responsive webapp: if we create a new button just for mobile, then we'll have to hide it for desktops, which means more complexity and testing - Icon discoverability: our users aren't tech-savvy, so we'd have to create a new button with the word «Refresh» on it, because they could easily miss it if we use an icon (also: screen real estate) - Familiarity: pull to refresh is a familiar gesture we can take advantage on, and it's easy to disable on desktop
    - hk__2 8y ago
      > It's a responsive webapp: if we create a new button just for mobile, then we'll have to hide it for desktops, which means more complexity and testing Don’t you need to refresh on desktop as well?
egfx 8y ago
I actually disagree. But with a caveat. That is, this introduces atypical behavior to desktop. However this would make a great shortcut to a standardized button on the screen. This has application in certain web-apps.
spraak 8y ago
Wouldn't this only work once you get to the top of the page? I don't imagine it would be implemented in such an awkward way that just by scrolling up it would refresh, usually you need to be at the top of the element
sametmax 8y ago
Pull to refresh is standard behavior in chrome, but not in firefox. It's very handy on mobile, so I install an extension to provide it on FF. But I can understand you may want to provide it to your user to make the experience better. However, unless you can detect that the feature is available or not, this may very well be buggy on browsers that have it already.

guskel 8y ago

Unfortunately most consumers want behavior like this.

blowski 8y ago
I’d disagree strongly. I’d argue that “Pull down to refresh” is still a bit of a geeky trick. Either way, you’d want a lot of user testing.

dave5104 8y ago

The worst offender I've found is websites that hijack the swipe gesture, either on a touchpad or on a touch device. Instead of going back in the browser, it'll go to another page on the site as if you wanted to swipe to the next article.

coding123 8y ago

I get the sentiment, but I would say that scroll jacking is a lot worse than pull to refresh jacking. Also just realized I'm not sure this script would work too differently if your talking about a desktop Webapp.

samet 8y ago

Agreed. One of the worst things that websites implement is overriding the history. In particular, "listicles" are doing that. When you go back, it goes back to the previous list item in the text even all the content lies in a single page app.

rsoto 8y ago

(I'm one of the creators of ptr.js) I have to agree with you on most cases: please don't touch my scroll behavior. However, this tool was created because on user testing, we found that for our app, users were having trouble figuring out how to refresh for new information (which isn't a feed, it's just a list of invoices they have received). Even when most of web users know that clicking the logo will take them to home, interestingly this pattern was not translated to mobile. And even when you have Chrome mobile with a native pull to refresh feature, you have a bunch more that doesn't have that. So we wanted to create a standard: regardless of what browser you choose, it will work the same. And we chose pull to refresh because it's very familiar for our users: we simply say "it's just like facebook" and they get it. We released this library because even if all browsers had the same gesture, the look and feel would be different, and also, because you might not need to do the default action (reloading the web page), as you might have a SPA that needs to poll the server, while keeping the current page state.

saagarjha 8y ago
> However, this tool was created because on user testing, we found that for our app, users were having trouble figuring out how to refresh for new information How about putting a refresh button somewhere?
- rsoto 8y ago
  Several reasons: - Screen real estate: we simply don't have enough space to put everything - It's a responsive webapp: if we create a new button just for mobile, then we'll have to hide it for desktops, which means more complexity and testing - Icon discoverability: our users aren't tech-savvy, so we'd have to create a new button with the word «Refresh» on it, because they could easily miss it if we use an icon (also: screen real estate) - Familiarity: pull to refresh is a familiar gesture we can take advantage on, and it's easy to disable on desktop
  - hk__2 8y ago
    > It's a responsive webapp: if we create a new button just for mobile, then we'll have to hide it for desktops, which means more complexity and testing Don’t you need to refresh on desktop as well?

egfx 8y ago

I actually disagree. But with a caveat. That is, this introduces atypical behavior to desktop. However this would make a great shortcut to a standardized button on the screen. This has application in certain web-apps.

spraak 8y ago

Wouldn't this only work once you get to the top of the page? I don't imagine it would be implemented in such an awkward way that just by scrolling up it would refresh, usually you need to be at the top of the element

sametmax 8y ago

Pull to refresh is standard behavior in chrome, but not in firefox. It's very handy on mobile, so I install an extension to provide it on FF. But I can understand you may want to provide it to your user to make the experience better. However, unless you can detect that the feature is available or not, this may very well be buggy on browsers that have it already.