Ask HN: Scrolling vs. paging – which do you prefer?

Almost always scrolling, no reason to interrupt my reading unless I, the reader, want to. Paging if your article loads a lot of heavy images or videos that can bring a smartphone to its knees.

I feel both patterns are relevant for a particular context. the important variables: A) will the user need to bookmark or revisit some of this data at a later point? B) is there a finite amount of data C)is the order in which the data displays crucial. D)is the Dataset updated /reorganized/regenerated frequently?

so obviously if the user needs to bookmark or get back to a specific listed data point quickly pagination will be a superior pattern choice. User : "I need <x> and I know it's on page<y>"

If the order of the data is important it can go either way. Both scroll and pagination allow for this. Scrolling is advantageous because it does not limit the viewable data. While pagination allows the user to jump around the set in a predictable manner albeit with more clicks. If there is an indeterminate amount of data I think the point should go to the scroll pattern.

if the dataset is constantly updated or re-organized hands down Scrolling will be a better solution. recalculation of pagination on rapidly changing data sets is a nightmare The user's mental position in a set will be challenged and getting through the set can be complicated and take many clicks.

Scrolling becomes much more useful if there is some form of visual aid with the information being listed. Google image search is a pleasure to scroll because the set that I am scrolling through is changing giving me a natural feel of exploration.

Pagination is much more effective on static, well organized data. A phonebook makes sense to have an index. each page could be a letter allowing the user to quickly jump from section to section based on their needs. A scrolling pattern could take hours to get to the desired data with a huge volume of numbers/name pairs. Without pictures, it also requires the user to read more which could potentially further slow them down.

The patterns are not mutually exclusive. Take for instance the phone book example mentioned above. Add pictures to each user and then have multiple scrolling pages paginated by letter. This would combine the strengths of both patterns minimizing the user's need to explore, but also offering an interesting way to explore a directory.

Scrolling: spirit of exploration. Low level of interaction. Great when the user is only generally aware of what they need. Poor for searching using the UI (great for find on this page)

pagination: ordered targeting searching. Enables quick navigation, eases return trips to info. Poor exploration. disjointed for reading. High level of user interaction.

All said I really enjoy scrolling. I find it relaxing, Seamless when reading articles, and it frankly feels more natural to use. I think there are good ways to use pagination, however I feel that I see it used inappropriately more often than scrolling.

-Tom Marra Javascript Front-end Developer

Scrolling: the way the Internet was meant to be viewed; Optimizes user experience. * I can view the information quickly and easily one page, at a glance * When viewing on a mobile device, I don't have to wait for additional load times for additional pages (less http requests)

(No, I don't want to click through 1,642 pages to view your article or list of top X things!)

Look around: Paging: Google Search, YouTube, GMail, Yahoo Search, Netflix Scrolling: Yahoo browse, Udemy, Twitter, Google news (no paging)

My preference: When presenting a browse experience where the user does not know what he wants, and is just exploring, use scrolling. Make it easy to "discover more", and make it immersive UX.

When presenting search results, or anything where the "user knows what he wants", use paging. This allows user to scroll back and forth on a page to "find what he wants" and click next to go to next page.

You can mix both to present a better UX. E.g paging for search results on 2/3 and scrolling for "related / similar / you might like" on 1/3 side bar.

Also take a look at TNW.com. After reading one article, it auto scrolls the entire list page which makes it easy to browse the categories + articles which is neat.

And if you're designing for mobile, paging is painful and it almost always has to be scroll - design for the thumb.

thanks for your feedback so far.

how about long-form matter?

e-books in particular...

-bowerbird

Paging is an artefact from the time when computers weren't powerful enough to show all content at the same time. For example, loading a html version of the several hundred pages long Emacs manual took an awful long time so it was more efficient to split it up into pages.

Then technology improved and in particular someone invented the SCROLL WHEEL which makes scrolling on the web much more convenient.