FRONT

February 01, 2008

To Scroll or Not to Scroll…

In this situation (after hearing the screams of a thousand web designers in my head) I mostly find myself arguing for the right to scroll. Although other times I plot against the scroll and damn it to hell. So what is the issue?

The right to scroll is an age-old argument (well, an age in GUI terms...), and one that is likely to continue into the future so long as the volume of our content eclipses the display area available. For the mean-time we need to take a balanced view and begin with the most important factor – context.

There is no Paradigm

The reason why there is no cut and dried approach to scrolling is that the environment in which the scrollable area is to appear really needs to be evaluated along with the apparent need to avoid scrolling. By ‘environment’ I am referring to ¹page design, ²the display device being used and ³the user goals that need to be considered.

1. Page design

   Sometimes the design of a page can make need to scroll more obvious – and therefor a percieved hassle. For example, if a web page has a short column width for article content this leads to more scrolling (especially if you prefer to turn your text size up within the browser).  A 50% reduction in column width can equal 100-120% growth in scrolling effort in order to get to the bottom of the article. The BBC’s archaic news layout has long been a culprit and source of some pretty athletic scrolling. Of course, having to choose between a design with lots of scrolling or butchering your content isn’t an easy one.

2. The display device being used

   The description for the area beyond where we need to scroll (commonly the bottom of the browser) has been affectionately re-purposed from print, to web design as “below the fold”.  But there the similarities end, as the dynamic aspect of the web throws many problems our way than would trouble a newspaper typesetter.

   Right now we are seeing a race to adapt old technology (such as TV and mobile phones) and develop new ones (such as multi-touch devices) that can interface with and display internet pages. If we remember that there is already a veriety of accepted display settings being used on our PC monitors, we can assume that the task of guessing how a web page is likely to be viewed is becoming increasingly difficult. This is a challenge for the modern web designer who must bare in mind that content may end up on a 2 inch portrait screen or a 42 inch widescreen.

3. User Goals

   The purpose of the web page of course, has a huge effect on whether or not the page should scroll. For example it is now accepted that the “comments” form for a blog article follows the main article body (you have to scroll to get there). Which is fine because wanting to comment on an article assumes you need to read it first.
   
   However, if these two items where switched around in favour of promoting user comments, the likely result would be few comments due to some users not realising that there is an article to be read. This may seam obvious, but you may be surprised by some of the mistakes made by web designers who do not consider the user.

OK. So now we have an idea of the factors that may shape the need for scrolling, what about best practice…?

The Evidence

Let’s look at the typical argument against scrolling:

If you ask any web user if they like to scroll they will say “no”.

This is true. Many studies have been carried out that show that the vast number of users who are asked this question will answer with a definite “no”. However, a bit like climbing the stairs to go to the bathroom, the average person will not think about whether or not they enjoyed the journey or found it a barrier to their goal unless asked directly. From a research point of view, this makes asking the question a bit of a red herring and therefore quizzing users directly is not likely to get you very far.

By studying exactly how the web is used, rather than how people say they use it, some researchers have come up with some interesting findings.

ClickTale precisely track user’s mouse movements and navigation patterns through clever online tools they have developed. Looking at aggregated usage statistics from around 120,000 web pages they have been able to establish the following:

91% of the page-views had a scroll-bar.
76% of the page-views with a scroll-bar, were scrolled to some extent.
22% of the page-views with a scroll-bar, were scrolled all the way to the bottom.

While studying the way in which users behave on the Cognos and New York Times websites, Jared Spool suggests that users are perfectly happy to scroll as long as the design makes it obvious that this is what they are expected to do. The responsibility for making this scrolling intention apparent is ofcourse, with the web designer.

Not Going Anywhere Just Yet

So, whether we like it or not, scrolling is still going to be an issue for some time. As long as we are open-minded enough to evaluate the need for scrolling on a case by case basis I think we should be able to keep MOST users happy.

As for me? On balance - I think we should all try not to get too hung up on the technical aspects of the scrolling issue and try to remember Milissa Tarquini’s simple instruction “If your content is compelling enough your users will read it to the end”.

And I have one final thought for you

If you have enjoyed this article enough to read this far, you almost definitely HAVE scrolled. And despite spending several minutes reading about the subject of scrolling, I bet you didn’t think about it ONCE in context of this page while getting to this very sentence. Or did you?