Down with scrolling? Sometimes.
20 Jun 2008 | Angie H
Earlier this year I wrote about vertical scrolling and why people seem to have such an issue with it. Then I came across this article by Glen Bledsoe at the National Education Association. It didn't change my mind, but it did bring up an important distinction between commercial website design and functional sites, such as e-learning and testing sites.
Jakob Nielsen told us back in 1997 that people read about 25% slower when reading from screens than from paper. That figure may have changed in the last decade, but probably not by much. Either way, the point is, people don't read as fast on-screen. And they're not very comfortable with it. Imagine trying to take a test online... even more uncomfortable. So it makes 100% good sense when Bledsoe tells us that vertical scrolling for online tests and e-learning is not a good thing. I think it's that very situation where "previous" and "next" links are 100% appropriate and scrolling is 100% inappropriate. But that, my friend, boils down to design. Not just any design, but user interface design.
If we take anything away from Bledsoe's article it's that web design is not plug and play and there are always exceptions to rules. It also tells us that designers have got to stop and think. Think about the application, the audience, the functionality. This is what separates the good from the not so good. After all, design isn't just about making things look cool.
