This is pretty funny, but God do I hate back to the top buttons.
I'm reading a story on a page with a back to the top button. I get distracted in real life and change the grip on my phone. I look back at my phone to continue reading and I'm at the top of the page. Now I have to find where I was again.
I've probably lost more time from accidentally hitting the back to the top button than the button has saved me time. This has made me paranoid about those buttons and I definitely prefer sites not to have them. Sometimes I switch to desktop mode on my phone just so I don't have that button on the screen.
I really hate them on iOS, because the system comes with back-to-top functionality so all these buttons are doing are looking ugly and covering part of the page. And don’t even get me started on when AMP breaks scrolling…
For anyone else who was wondering, you can tap the top of the address bar on iOS Safari. I think it has to be expanded first. I didn’t know that and hope it helps.
It works just about anywhere, actually. Just tap the time (or tap the earpiece, on a notched phone) to scroll to the top. Works in Safari, Chrome, Messages, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter... the list of exceptions is short.
I just want to take a moment to give a shoutout to the Tweetbot devs, which expanded on iOS’ back-to-top functionality:
Tapping the top of the page again takes you back to your scroll position! Incredibly useful for recovering from accidental taps, and I kind of wish iOS would copy it, since it happens more often than I’d like.
The Apollo reddit app also does this! Really great feature when I want to go back up to look at the content again and then go back to the comment I was reading.
I always thought that re-scrollback was just a feature of iOS. I use it all the time in Apollo. But it doesn't seem to work in the Reminders app, nor the Notes app. Way to go Tweetbot and Apollo devs!
This is interesting, I've often found the buttons to be useful at times on mobile, so was wondering where all the hate came from, and turns out it was because iOS already has the feature built-in (I use Android, which doesn't really have an equivalent afaik).
Though to play devil's advocate, I'm willing to bet 80%+ of iOS users have no idea the feature even exists, so removing it just because it's available as a system feature doesn't sound like a particularly compelling argument to me.
I think having some kind of sticky navigation instead of scroll to top makes for a much more compelling UX though, since it accomplishes the same goal without the downsides of hitting it by accident causing an irreversible loss of context.
Me too! My phone already has a built-in “back to top” button. I don’t need your ugly 0.5 opacity CSS circle occluding my view of the content.
I’m not sure I’ve ever clicked (or tapped) one of those buttons. The same complaint applies to share bars, and honestly, sticky headers as well. I really prefer to just read the content and let my browser handle the chrome.
I think this is just problem in general with touch devices.
Also the way modern apps are designed, where almost everything is button, does not help.
See mobile twitter, for example, close to 100% of the screen is link of button that does something.
I think other than being kitchy, the part I love the most is NO FRAMEWORK: plain js. No pre/mid/post/art-deco processor that turns 4 hours of work into 40 hours.
I've been developing some games and frontend on my free time for fun. I've been using typescript and Pixi.js but other than that nothing else. As a backend engineer, I've always thought about learning a frontend framework but I've never actually had a strong need of it.
So question if you're a frontend engineer: Should I? I never felt the need of a framework despite I render quite a bit of dom elements. Do I have a need that I just don't know right now?
If you want to get a job as a frontend engineer, you should learn React because it's a tick-box on a lot of job postings these days.
If you just want to make personal projects, it depends a lot on what kinds of projects you want to make. React won't really help you with the sort of 2D-game-type programming you're using Pixi.js for. On the other hand, if you think the Reddit redesign is really good and you want to make a website that works exactly like that, the React community is a good place to start.
But one of the main benefits of using React that I've heard about is that it forces all the members of a development team to organize (certain parts of) their code the same way. This isn't really an issue on personal projects. Personally, I spent about a year working with React for a job, but I continue to write vanilla JavaScript on my own time.
(You can learn other frameworks than React, but React is a good starting point because it's the most popular one. Then you can learn about Framework X by reading "how is Framework X different from React" articles online.)
If you have a multiple team-members and you need to get everyone using a common approach, frameworks can be useful. If you need to do small unit's of work and need to leverage boilerplate functions, frameworks can be useful.
The issue I see today is many of these frameworks started as ways to build efficiency; they have degraded into disciplines that require exorbitant investment without corresponding business value.
And then you have to select the floor before it's going up, Ha!
Joke aside, maybe add a feature to allow user to pause/suspend the "Lifting"? This will give user a chance to "Hey! oh wait" when they "Passed the desired floor by mistake".
Same here, it's 6.40am here and I am about to start my 2h sprint before my kid wakes up. I feel I deserve for browsing HN instead of being productive :D
Secondly, what percentage of elevators even play music these days?
Pretty much every elevator I've been in for the last ten years. I note it mentally because spirit of the music is always at odds with the messages on the display screens.
I think the only elevators where I haven't heard music recently are in residential buildings.
huh... no shit. I think I've encountered maybe 2 or 3 elevators that play music in my life, and I'm a middle-aged guy living and working in a major metropolitan area where most non-residential, and many residential buildings have elevators.
"back to top" is just such an epitome of how out of touch some modern design is.
We had buttons on our keyboards that did this for half a century now. As for phones it should be up to the web-browser to implement it, nobody wants to use your idea of how scrolling should work. My machine already knows how I want to browse my content, don't pretend you know better.
But if you make a really big button (or a button that appears out of nowhere on mouseover on PCs) that people frequently hit by accident, your "engagement" metric will improve, showing that the feature is valuable!
The worst offender of this right now is email programs. You go to click an entry in your email list and then suddenly you've archived it with a little icon that wasn't previously there.
A floating back to top button just means they don't want you to waste time reading the content. You should click around and view some more ads instead.
I mean, that's the only possible conclusion I can come up with, since they give the button such prominence. It's the same with newsletter popups. You shove that in my face, obscuring all other content, it means your site is dedicated to harvesting email addresses, and you want to spam me senseless.
I think its actually a result of people using only (or at least, most of the time) the mouse to browse the internet. If you just click from one link to another, pressing "home" is actually quite a far reach. There are people around that still think you have to drag the scrollbar. Sure, "home" is way faster, but a (well implemented) choice helps some and does not hurt.
Does Android not have some native scroll-to-top gesture/button? On iOS you just tap the status bar and it's uncommon for it not to work where you'd expect it to.
No, I feel like a caveman saying this, but if you want to go to the top of the page, you have to flick your finger down really fast, or reload the page.
This is ironic. The vast majority of users don't know about most of these functions. They just use their mouse. Even for basic things like:
- navigating & selecting text (words, lines etc.)
- switching between windows
- opening search (like spotlight, if they use it at all...)
- opening & closing windows/tabs, saving files etc.
The list goes on. UI design is not about teaching you how to use a computer. And you certainly cannot expect users to already know.
That said. I think fixed position "back to top" buttons are terrible as well and I would put fixed position header-menus in the same category. They just add clutter and worsen the UX, even for those who almost exclusively use the mouse (as you can simply drag the scroll-bar).
True. Whenever I sit and watch people use the computer (just watch when they are giving a presentation/screen sharing), I often cringe.
Many don't use the scroll on their mouse/trackpad - they literally look for the scrollbar, click and drag to scroll.
Many are blissfully unaware that the keys Page Up and Page Down move the page up and down or that Home and End move the whole page to the beginning and the end.
BUT, they do know about the Back button on the browser so they end up resubmitting forms/double posting, etc. lol
335 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 315 ms ] threadI'm reading a story on a page with a back to the top button. I get distracted in real life and change the grip on my phone. I look back at my phone to continue reading and I'm at the top of the page. Now I have to find where I was again.
I've probably lost more time from accidentally hitting the back to the top button than the button has saved me time. This has made me paranoid about those buttons and I definitely prefer sites not to have them. Sometimes I switch to desktop mode on my phone just so I don't have that button on the screen.
Tapping the top of the page again takes you back to your scroll position! Incredibly useful for recovering from accidental taps, and I kind of wish iOS would copy it, since it happens more often than I’d like.
I always thought that re-scrollback was just a feature of iOS. I use it all the time in Apollo. But it doesn't seem to work in the Reminders app, nor the Notes app. Way to go Tweetbot and Apollo devs!
Fuck AMP.
Though to play devil's advocate, I'm willing to bet 80%+ of iOS users have no idea the feature even exists, so removing it just because it's available as a system feature doesn't sound like a particularly compelling argument to me.
I think having some kind of sticky navigation instead of scroll to top makes for a much more compelling UX though, since it accomplishes the same goal without the downsides of hitting it by accident causing an irreversible loss of context.
I’m not sure I’ve ever clicked (or tapped) one of those buttons. The same complaint applies to share bars, and honestly, sticky headers as well. I really prefer to just read the content and let my browser handle the chrome.
So question if you're a frontend engineer: Should I? I never felt the need of a framework despite I render quite a bit of dom elements. Do I have a need that I just don't know right now?
If you just want to make personal projects, it depends a lot on what kinds of projects you want to make. React won't really help you with the sort of 2D-game-type programming you're using Pixi.js for. On the other hand, if you think the Reddit redesign is really good and you want to make a website that works exactly like that, the React community is a good place to start.
But one of the main benefits of using React that I've heard about is that it forces all the members of a development team to organize (certain parts of) their code the same way. This isn't really an issue on personal projects. Personally, I spent about a year working with React for a job, but I continue to write vanilla JavaScript on my own time.
(You can learn other frameworks than React, but React is a good starting point because it's the most popular one. Then you can learn about Framework X by reading "how is Framework X different from React" articles online.)
Conversely, if I think the reddit redesign is horrible, I guess I should stay well away? ;)
Which it's not.
The issue I see today is many of these frameworks started as ways to build efficiency; they have degraded into disciplines that require exorbitant investment without corresponding business value.
Joke aside, maybe add a feature to allow user to pause/suspend the "Lifting"? This will give user a chance to "Hey! oh wait" when they "Passed the desired floor by mistake".
I think we need web un-development to get us out of this javascript tar pit.
In all seriousness, I hope this will not become another 250kb JS framework we use in our projects..
Had a good laugh about it afterwards haha...
Pretty much every elevator I've been in for the last ten years. I note it mentally because spirit of the music is always at odds with the messages on the display screens.
I think the only elevators where I haven't heard music recently are in residential buildings.
We had buttons on our keyboards that did this for half a century now. As for phones it should be up to the web-browser to implement it, nobody wants to use your idea of how scrolling should work. My machine already knows how I want to browse my content, don't pretend you know better.
...AARGH! No, scratch that. It's actually infuriating. :)
I mean, that's the only possible conclusion I can come up with, since they give the button such prominence. It's the same with newsletter popups. You shove that in my face, obscuring all other content, it means your site is dedicated to harvesting email addresses, and you want to spam me senseless.
This is ironic. The vast majority of users don't know about most of these functions. They just use their mouse. Even for basic things like:
- navigating & selecting text (words, lines etc.)
- switching between windows
- opening search (like spotlight, if they use it at all...)
- opening & closing windows/tabs, saving files etc.
The list goes on. UI design is not about teaching you how to use a computer. And you certainly cannot expect users to already know.
That said. I think fixed position "back to top" buttons are terrible as well and I would put fixed position header-menus in the same category. They just add clutter and worsen the UX, even for those who almost exclusively use the mouse (as you can simply drag the scroll-bar).
Many don't use the scroll on their mouse/trackpad - they literally look for the scrollbar, click and drag to scroll.
Many are blissfully unaware that the keys Page Up and Page Down move the page up and down or that Home and End move the whole page to the beginning and the end.
BUT, they do know about the Back button on the browser so they end up resubmitting forms/double posting, etc. lol
Maybe we should be pushing browsers to have better UX on-boarding and teaching people that home button will scroll you up to the top of the page etc.
Wish this was mentioned on the page, it was a bit embarrassing when it started playing in the middle of our daily standup!
I always mute myself when I'm not speaking