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Note to designers: stop overlaying divs on top of your main body content. Users press the Page Down key, and it obscures the first text lines of the next page u

Note to designers: stop overlaying divs on top of your main body content. Users press the Page Down key, and it obscures the first text lines of the next page under the navigation, or top banner, or whatever you've placed so cleverly up there. It's frustrating, impedes the reader's experience, and makes people not want to bother with your content. Okay, done with my UX rant. Sorry. Thanks.

karolisd 14y ago
Off the top of my head, Facebook and Mashable do this, it's becoming the standard.
- jblock 14y ago
  It doesn't help that most laptops have lost the Page Up/Down key. Just a thought.
  - sorghum 14y ago
    Space for page down and shift+space for page up are pretty common too.
  - halviti 14y ago
    I've never seen a full laptop that didn't have a PgUp/PgDn that wasn't a Mac. Some netbooks do have these keys removed, but certainly not "most" laptops.
xxbondsxx 14y ago
It breaks scrolling too -- if you scroll more than a few pixels down the page, the div jumps position and all the text moves vertically. Really horrible UX
jfb 14y ago
When I see that garbage, I just close the window. Treating one's readers with open contempt doesn't seem like a good strategy to me.
shardling 14y ago
I actually came across this Firefox bug pretty recently: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=780345 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=780345 It shows how browser makers can help alleviate the problem.
alexpenny 14y ago
Why are you using page down? No scroll wheel, old habits, on a laptop? Its something I've never used and have never thought about while designing, seems like a lot of websites are ignoring it as well; fb, techcrunch etc.
- wukkuan 14y ago
  I use space for page down and shift+space for page up. Scrolling means tracking where I am as I go, when I hit page down I know where to start reading, the top. It feels more like reading a book.
- brigade 14y ago
  It's hard to get more optimal than "read a page of text" "press button for next page". Scroll wheels require some combination of * Have to move it more to travel the same distance * Have to fiddle with it to get exactly one page * Have to track your position during the scroll * Have to scroll more often than once per page This (among numerous other near-universal UX transgressions) has gotten to the point that my first action on almost any internet article is to hit ⇧⌘R.
  - alexpenny 14y ago
    I've always read at the center of the page while scrolling. It's what I've noticed most everyone my age doing. Maybe it's generational, I've only been at this since windows ME.
- jsankey 14y ago
  Maybe because he wants to go exactly one page down as easily as possible, and this is something that has generally worked for decades. It's pretty simple, really.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - alexpenny 14y ago
    Wow brilliant!
pooriaazimi 14y ago
That's why I don't understand why people are so opposed to good ol' <frame>s. You could resize them AND they wouldn't torture you if you used page down/space key...

karolisd 14y ago

Off the top of my head, Facebook and Mashable do this, it's becoming the standard.

jblock 14y ago
It doesn't help that most laptops have lost the Page Up/Down key. Just a thought.
- sorghum 14y ago
  Space for page down and shift+space for page up are pretty common too.
- halviti 14y ago
  I've never seen a full laptop that didn't have a PgUp/PgDn that wasn't a Mac. Some netbooks do have these keys removed, but certainly not "most" laptops.

xxbondsxx 14y ago

It breaks scrolling too -- if you scroll more than a few pixels down the page, the div jumps position and all the text moves vertically. Really horrible UX

jfb 14y ago

When I see that garbage, I just close the window. Treating one's readers with open contempt doesn't seem like a good strategy to me.

shardling 14y ago

I actually came across this Firefox bug pretty recently: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=780345 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=780345 It shows how browser makers can help alleviate the problem.

alexpenny 14y ago

Why are you using page down? No scroll wheel, old habits, on a laptop? Its something I've never used and have never thought about while designing, seems like a lot of websites are ignoring it as well; fb, techcrunch etc.

wukkuan 14y ago
I use space for page down and shift+space for page up. Scrolling means tracking where I am as I go, when I hit page down I know where to start reading, the top. It feels more like reading a book.
brigade 14y ago
It's hard to get more optimal than "read a page of text" "press button for next page". Scroll wheels require some combination of * Have to move it more to travel the same distance * Have to fiddle with it to get exactly one page * Have to track your position during the scroll * Have to scroll more often than once per page This (among numerous other near-universal UX transgressions) has gotten to the point that my first action on almost any internet article is to hit ⇧⌘R.
- alexpenny 14y ago
  I've always read at the center of the page while scrolling. It's what I've noticed most everyone my age doing. Maybe it's generational, I've only been at this since windows ME.
jsankey 14y ago
Maybe because he wants to go exactly one page down as easily as possible, and this is something that has generally worked for decades. It's pretty simple, really.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- alexpenny 14y ago
  Wow brilliant!

pooriaazimi 14y ago

That's why I don't understand why people are so opposed to good ol' <frame>s. You could resize them AND they wouldn't torture you if you used page down/space key...