The New Rules for Scrolling in Web Design

Internet users are appreciating and loving the websites which mandatorily requires scrolling.

Scrolling in web design was once considered as taboo at a time.

Now with the complete turn of events, it has become one of the most popular techniques in recent years.

With a core interaction design element, scrolling is reinventing itself and shedding its old stigmas. But this also means that web designers have new rules to learn. In this article, we will learn some quick tips for its technique, pros & cons, and the emerging of scrolling in web design.

Reincarnation of Scrolling

The evolution of the mobile phone has resulted in the rebirth of scrolling. Times have changed and mobile users have surpassed the desktop users.

Hence the user interface of all the things accessible from mobile has been managed accordingly. Due to smaller screens scrolling has become inevitable.

With advancements provided by the service providers, accessibility of high-speed internet has become possible. This makes scrolling feasible compared to opening a new page for connecting information on a topic.

Scrolling contributes to accessing the user-generated content in all most all social media handles. Long scrolling is said to have been evolved from the card-based design.

Which enables users an endless stream of bite-sized content which perfectly suits the web and mobile experience.
Due to poor designing and usual textual content on the sites, scrolling was considered as boring.

The above fold doctrine is now being recognized as a myth which was holding the scrolling back for a long time. But now the long scroll acts as a canvas for the end, middle, and beginning.

That successfully illustrates a narrative to the audience through animations, graphics, icons, and others. It has a unique specialty in capturing user attention.

Pros and Cons of Scrolling

Every new and old technique is either loved by the users or criticized. In most cases, all users have a valid point.
Hence it is important to scrutinize and discuss positive and negative aspects of a technique for deriving a personal conclusion about its usefulness.

Advantages
1. Scrolling in web design encourages audience interaction. It can be a great narrative type of medium for promoting user interaction.
2. You can create an interesting storytelling method with constant stimulation of changing elements by using scrolling.
3. Navigation paths are slower, complex, and limit the user experience while long scrolling is faster than navigating and clicking.
4. Infinite scrolling sites ensure the users spend maximum time on a page. It is also easy to use and helps users in discovering related content. Hence it entices users.
5. Many times it can be complicated to maintain flawless designs for multiple pages which are accessed from various devices. But with long scrolling, it is just a onetime effort that makes the difference.
6. It is relatively easy to scroll down rather than moving the pointer constantly and surfing through different pages for information that is relatively connected.
Website users who are accessing it from the mobile phones have accepted this as a way in which the information is displayed.
7. Limited clicks by a user result in quick interactions specifically for a selected user experience like gaming and apps.

Example of Website Design company using scrolling.

Disadvantages

1. Majority of the users are accustomed to this technique because it is widespread today. There is always some percentage of users that resists change. They have been avoiding scrolling for years and will not be happy with it.
2. You might end up facing a drawback at the SEO end as having a single page can affect the site’s SEO.
3. If the content is disorienting i.e. there is a disconnection between the content and the scrolling, it will make users confused. Hence it is essential that a scrolling website is designed only by an expert and experienced developer.
4. Users can find it difficult to go back to the previously viewed content in a scrolling mechanism. Creating persistent top navigation that anchors each item to a page section might help to resolve this navigation problem.
5. For a site containing large videos, images, or galleries it may be difficult to maintain the quick loading speed of the website. For parallax scrolling, the website may slow down as it relies upon JavaScript and jQuery.
6. Infinite scrolling sites do not come with the footer. Hence the users may face difficulties in navigation. A sticky footer which is lean can be used to so that the navigation compatibility of the users is not sacrificed.

These are the typical advantages and disadvantages of scrolling in web design. You have to focus on the type of site that you intend to create and make a decision accordingly. The type of sites for which the scrolling techniques is the best are:

i) Websites that are going to be accessed by a significant number of mobile users
ii) Websites that intend to update blogs or release frequent updates
iii) If a website intend to pass on considerable information in a comprehension manner
iv) The website that does not include a lot of media files

Generally, social media websites are constantly updated with user-generated content and they do well with scrolling websites.

For coherent navigation which is mostly required in e-commerce websites, they tend more towards conservative page lengths.

Do not use the scrolling websites just because they are trending or many websites are using it. If the criteria of your website fit with the idea of a scrolling website only then it will do wonders for you.

If you try to use a scrolling website where it is not required you might end up with disastrous results.

Recommended and Best Practices

Mechanisms for scrolling in web design like a long scroll, parallax effect, and others are still relatively new to the realm of the design. But still fundamental best practices have been produced from rudimentary trial and error. For successfully implanting the long scrolling, following are some everyday tips.

• It is acceptable and legitimate to alternate short with long scroll. It should be seen that the content must be the one dictating the scroll length and not vice versa.
It is absolutely fine if you intend to use a long-scroll landing page and a short-scroll homepage.

• It should be seen that user can easily and quickly bounce from elements to elements in the scroll which enables them to get back quickly.
You can consider using sticky navigations for the same.

• For enabling every user to see how the site works you must use scrolling with tools or design elements. For fun and easy methods that can help a user determine about the things to do next, you can always use animated buttons, arrows, and similar interface tools.

• To makes sure that your website gets the desired interaction, be sure about making a clear distinction between the call to action buttons and scrolling clicks.

• You will have to research about how your target audience is interacting with the scrolling technique. Google analytics will always help you in understanding how many people clicked a particular fold. After a thorough analysis, you can make the necessary decision to tweaking the design as required.

• Maintain the limits. A long scroll does not mean a lengthy and continuous 700 pages website. A long scroll can be simple enough. Make sure that you include your story and then stop. Do not force extra content which will be useless for the audience. It will occupy more space and make the site slower.

• It is essential that you focus on the requirements of the target audience and also understand that any sits that claim to be a infinite scrolling site is truly not endless. No matter if your website is infinite scrolling; your users will always require orientation and navigation properly.

• Make sure that you include visual cues on the sides. It can help to orient users in the scroll and make the scrolling experience comfortable. Scrolling can turn dangerous if you overuse it. Make sure you use scrolling in web design only as much as it is required.

Page-less Designs

Long scrolling sites are bound to stay for a longer time now. It is a simple fact that a smaller screen will require considerable scrolling and with popular mobile phone launching every other day the increase and decrease in the size of the screens will be permanent.

The future of the web as many prominent developers believe has already started which is the pageless design. And if we are to believe them, the transition has already begun. Websites and blogs continue to feature stories about the difficulties that user’s face and the information that they consume.

But as designers, it becomes important to think radically so that one can adapt the best methods to create content in a completely different environment and scrolling in web design is one of those best methods.

Conclusion

Interacting designs can be considered as a foundation for the long-scrolling websites.
Users are not going to be complaining about the length till the time they are satisfied with the content.

If the interface is fun and unique there will not be any complaints about the design from the users. You can do your trick and engage the audience to reveal what you have for them in your bucket, just after a considerable wait.

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