In old days, scrolling is not as popular as today for many people like the idea of scrolling. But, now people find site with scrolling is a necessity. Change the old stigma about scrolling is quite challenging since designers should learn the new rules. In this article, we discuss why scrolling gains more popularity today and list out some quick tips for the technique. If you are a web designer or web developer this article might suit you.
Why Scrolling is Reborn
Since mobile users have surpassed desktop users, more designs are adjusted accordingly. In fact, with so many smaller screens users, scrolling gains more popularity: the smaller the screen, the longer the scroll.
Other factors are access to high speed internet which is available in more places. This provides quicker way compared to click from page to page. Besides, social media also plays an important role to feed the technique. By scrolling they can accommodate their wealth of user-generated content. In web design trends 2015&2016, long scroll works very well with card-based design. This combined technique provides users an endless stream of bite-sized content.
Moreover, hybrid patterns also occur as the latest trend in scrolling. So, how would scrolling bring good impact to your business? Here are some advantages and best practices of scrolling.
Advantages of Scrolling
- Encourages interaction: It can be an interesting storytelling method that encourages user interaction with its ever constant stimulation of changing element. Especially if you add tastefully-executed parallax scrolling.
- Faster: believe it or not scrolling is faster than clicking, especially through a complex navigation path. Besides, it does not slow down or limit the user experience. According to Interaction Design Best Practices, the perception of time is far more important than the actual passing of time.
- Entice users: one of the advantages that scrolling can provide is that users may discover relevant content while scrolling which they may not have even thought of.
- Responsive design: With different screen sizes and capabilities, page designing can get complicated across devices, but scrolling helps simplify the differences.
- Delightful Design: Few clicks can result in quicker interactions for a more app-or game-like user experience.
Disadvantages of Scrolling
- SEO drawbacks: In terms of Search engine optimization, one page may bring a negative effect.
- Disorienting: some users may get confused or disjointed because of the disconnection between scrolling and content.
- Navigational difficulties: to encounter any awkward situation, such as “go back” to previous content on the page, you can create a persistent top navigation where each item is anchored to a page section.
- Site speed: Usually, scrolling in web design will be combined with parallax. This will slow down the site speed as parallax-scrolling sites rely upon Javascript and jQuery.
Scrolling Best Practices
Even though, long scrolling is still considered as new, but some people have found some fundamental best practice through trial-and-error. Here are some tips for implementing long scrolling successfully:
- Let your content determine the scroll length and not the other way around. In fact, it’s okay to use a short-scroll homepage and long-scroll landing pages.
- Using sticky navigation is also a good idea as users can always “get back” quickly or bounce from element to element in the scroll.
- To make the user see how the site works, you can suggest scrolling with design elements or tools. For example, arrows, animated buttons or similar user interface are easy and fun ways to help the user determines what to do next. In fact, to help navigate the site, some sites even include a small button with instructions like “scroll for more” or “get started”.
- Don’t ignore a research; you can discover how users are interacting with the scroll through Google analytics. First, open the “In Page Analytics” tab to see how many people click below the fold. Used the data to tweak the design as necessary.
- It is important to clarify your user’s current location and place other possible paths after infinite scrolling sites.
By knowing the advantages of scrolling and how to practice it best, you can leverage your user experience and hopefully gain more visitors to your site.