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Infinite scrolling in itself is considered by some to be a terrible UI pattern. I understand the 'need' due to the tiny screen size of most smartphones but why

Infinite scrolling in itself is considered by some to be a terrible UI pattern. I understand the 'need' due to the tiny screen size of most smartphones but why oh why force it down the throat of desktop users? With infinite scrolling I'm losing one important ability: I can't just check where the scrollbar is and "come back" later to that place. It's hard to explain but it's something I can do very easily. With infinite scrolling I'm screwed. Couldn't this be solved by serving, right from the start, a page that has a gigantic height (e.g. 5 000 pixels tall or 10 000 pixels or any unit you find suitable) and then if you scroll down "too fast" you see that the stuff is "loading..." ? This wouldn't be "infinite" but I sure wouldn't be as confused.

ZoFreX 14y ago
I hate it on smartphones too - it has the exact same issues on them as it does on the desktop. Scroll down a few screens on Facebook, tap a link, read it, hit the back button - welcome to the top of the feed! (This isn't an issue if your phone has enough RAM to keep the FB app open at the same time as your browser, but sadly low-end Android phones barely have enough RAM to hold one app)
diminish 14y ago
Indeed infinite scroll is annoying in the presence of footer, or in the case of huge pics to be downloaded, or when doing scroll bookmarking. Another bad UI pattern at this blogging site is the lack of a home page link. It pushed me to struggle on my tablet just to see who the guy is.
- king_jester 14y ago
  I've seen people talk about infinite scroll usually as an alternative to pagination. Outside of infinite scroll and pagination, are there any better UI patterns for the desktop web?
dfox 14y ago
Main problem I see with infinite scrolling is that it is simply impossible to scroll by dragging scrollbar, as once you get near the end of page it shrinks and jumps around. Combined with arrow keys repurposed for something else than scrolling (G+) and PageUp/PageDown scrolling by slightly more than viewport (because of fixed elements on top/bottom) it makes some sites highly unusable without scroll wheel (which reasonable laptops does not have :)).
ville 14y ago
I agree about the importance of ability to come back and immediately navigate to the same scroll position. Especially since most browsers have a built in capability to do this, which I have learned to rely on. Most techniques of dynamically loading content or messing with the scrolling seem to break this, the worst being badly implemented "address bar hiding scripts" for mobile devices. You return to the page using the back button and the browser scrolls you to your previous position on the page. Then that script kicks in and scrolls back to the top.

ZoFreX 14y ago

I hate it on smartphones too - it has the exact same issues on them as it does on the desktop. Scroll down a few screens on Facebook, tap a link, read it, hit the back button - welcome to the top of the feed! (This isn't an issue if your phone has enough RAM to keep the FB app open at the same time as your browser, but sadly low-end Android phones barely have enough RAM to hold one app)

diminish 14y ago

Indeed infinite scroll is annoying in the presence of footer, or in the case of huge pics to be downloaded, or when doing scroll bookmarking. Another bad UI pattern at this blogging site is the lack of a home page link. It pushed me to struggle on my tablet just to see who the guy is.

king_jester 14y ago
I've seen people talk about infinite scroll usually as an alternative to pagination. Outside of infinite scroll and pagination, are there any better UI patterns for the desktop web?

dfox 14y ago

Main problem I see with infinite scrolling is that it is simply impossible to scroll by dragging scrollbar, as once you get near the end of page it shrinks and jumps around. Combined with arrow keys repurposed for something else than scrolling (G+) and PageUp/PageDown scrolling by slightly more than viewport (because of fixed elements on top/bottom) it makes some sites highly unusable without scroll wheel (which reasonable laptops does not have :)).

ville 14y ago

I agree about the importance of ability to come back and immediately navigate to the same scroll position. Especially since most browsers have a built in capability to do this, which I have learned to rely on. Most techniques of dynamically loading content or messing with the scrolling seem to break this, the worst being badly implemented "address bar hiding scripts" for mobile devices. You return to the page using the back button and the browser scrolls you to your previous position on the page. Then that script kicks in and scrolls back to the top.