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I think it's worth noting that "natural scrolling" was only a thing once iPhones and iPads came out. The reasoning was that we were already in a cognitive disso

I think it's worth noting that "natural scrolling" was only a thing once iPhones and iPads came out. The reasoning was that we were already in a cognitive dissonance when switching between touch interfaces and mouse interfaces. As more and more of the interaction with Apple became touch (or touchpad -- the Magic Trackpad came out around the same time), the original direction of scrolling stopping making sense. When you aren't moving an object with your fingers, it matters less which direction you move. When you start directly interacting with objects, the "natural" scrolling direction makes more sense. That said, it took me a few years before I ended up switching. Unchecking the scroll direction checkbox was the first thing I used to do on a Mac. Now, I'm quite happy with the natural direction. Here's example press from the time: https://slate.com/technology/2011/09/apple-s-mousetrap-why-did-apple-reverse-the-way-we-scroll-up-and-down.html https://slate.com/technology/2011/09/apple-s-mousetrap-why-d...

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
The hand tool in Acrobat Reader did this earlier.
- sgerenser 7y ago
  Acrobat reader didn’t invent the hand tool. Pretty sure there were Mac apps on the original Macintosh in 1984 with a hand tool that worked the same way.
robin_reala 7y ago
It’s the same thing with computer games and what you started on. I have to invert the y-axis on the look stick on every game I play, because I grew up in the 80s with joysticks and flight sims. Pushing up on the stick to look up is semantically obvious, but completely the opposite of pushing forwards on a flight-control style joystick that tilts the plane down.
MiroF 7y ago
The weirdest thing is that many of my friends have forgotten that it was every not like this. I mention that I prefer the old method of scrolling and they are insistent that it has always been "natural."

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago

The hand tool in Acrobat Reader did this earlier.

sgerenser 7y ago
Acrobat reader didn’t invent the hand tool. Pretty sure there were Mac apps on the original Macintosh in 1984 with a hand tool that worked the same way.

robin_reala 7y ago

It’s the same thing with computer games and what you started on. I have to invert the y-axis on the look stick on every game I play, because I grew up in the 80s with joysticks and flight sims. Pushing up on the stick to look up is semantically obvious, but completely the opposite of pushing forwards on a flight-control style joystick that tilts the plane down.

MiroF 7y ago

The weirdest thing is that many of my friends have forgotten that it was every not like this. I mention that I prefer the old method of scrolling and they are insistent that it has always been "natural."