5 ms·

1. Position of elevator (the little thumb you traditionally drag up or down) shows where I'm at relative to the beginning and end of the content. 2. Size of el

1. Position of elevator (the little thumb you traditionally drag up or down) shows where I'm at relative to the beginning and end of the content. 2. Size of elevator in relation to the scrollbar tells me what percentage of the content is viewable (except when the size of the elevator becomes so small it makes it unusable). 3. Up and down buttons allow a simple way to bring the next or previous item into view. A lot of the hate of scrollbars comes from the web, where browser scrollbars could not be styled and didn't necessarily use the operating system's style. You could have a beautiful page be ruined by the default windows 3.11 style scrollbars in the browser.

ryanjshaw 6y ago
Don't forget the near religious debate that is scrollbar snapback: skim a document backwards to review an earlier point, or forwards to determine if it's worth further time investment, and then release the mouse button outside the scroll area so that you can snapback and continue where you left off.
- mekkkkkk 6y ago
  Somehow I have never discovered this feature. It's brilliant. Thanks!
- shard 6y ago
  Where is this feature available or implemented? I just tried in Chrome and Powerpoint, neither has this feature.
  - recursive 6y ago
    I've never seen an app that didn't have that feature. Chrome included. I don't have powerpoint around to test at the moment. I've been using this feature since the 90s, and I'd miss it sorely if it were to be disappeared.
  - darkwinx 6y ago
    I try it just now and it works on Firefox & Window's File Explorer.
wtallis 6y ago
Your list is missing an entry: 0. The existence of a scrollbar tells you there's something to be scrolled. Flat UIs are pretty good at accidentally hiding the fact that not all of the content fits on screen on in whatever borderless frame.
- function_seven 6y ago
  It's always fun when the content layout naturally fits into the viewport in such a way to make it look like there's nothing down below. Also fun when websites that are waging their holy war against the bars don't anticipate that I'm zoomed in a bit. Having to delve into devtools to disable "overflow: hidden" is a delight.
  - crysin 6y ago
    Whats worse is when a website has a footer but they have a never-ending scroll div between the header and footer so as you approach the footer more content loads pushing the footer even further down.
- IggleSniggle 6y ago
  Just this year I was trying to explain to mom how to do something with an iPhone. There’s about a million different secret handshakes and gestures in iOS UI, but I consider the most egregious UI failure to be the “Share” button, which manages to pop up a modal in such a way that it often disguises both that it can be be scrolled vertically AND that it can be scrolled horizontally.

ryanjshaw 6y ago

Don't forget the near religious debate that is scrollbar snapback: skim a document backwards to review an earlier point, or forwards to determine if it's worth further time investment, and then release the mouse button outside the scroll area so that you can snapback and continue where you left off.

mekkkkkk 6y ago
Somehow I have never discovered this feature. It's brilliant. Thanks!
shard 6y ago
Where is this feature available or implemented? I just tried in Chrome and Powerpoint, neither has this feature.
- recursive 6y ago
  I've never seen an app that didn't have that feature. Chrome included. I don't have powerpoint around to test at the moment. I've been using this feature since the 90s, and I'd miss it sorely if it were to be disappeared.
- darkwinx 6y ago
  I try it just now and it works on Firefox & Window's File Explorer.

wtallis 6y ago

Your list is missing an entry: 0. The existence of a scrollbar tells you there's something to be scrolled. Flat UIs are pretty good at accidentally hiding the fact that not all of the content fits on screen on in whatever borderless frame.

function_seven 6y ago
It's always fun when the content layout naturally fits into the viewport in such a way to make it look like there's nothing down below. Also fun when websites that are waging their holy war against the bars don't anticipate that I'm zoomed in a bit. Having to delve into devtools to disable "overflow: hidden" is a delight.
- crysin 6y ago
  Whats worse is when a website has a footer but they have a never-ending scroll div between the header and footer so as you approach the footer more content loads pushing the footer even further down.
IggleSniggle 6y ago
Just this year I was trying to explain to mom how to do something with an iPhone. There’s about a million different secret handshakes and gestures in iOS UI, but I consider the most egregious UI failure to be the “Share” button, which manages to pop up a modal in such a way that it often disguises both that it can be be scrolled vertically AND that it can be scrolled horizontally.