[Sigia-l] Long scrolling pages and Usability

[Donna Maurer]

Personally I like long pages. The reasons:

- I have a horrid rural internet connection at home. I'd prefer to wait one
long time for a page to load than for 6 short times
- I'm usually pretty busy and like to know how long it might take me to read -
I can see how long a page is and know whether to drop it into my 'read later'
bookmarks
- I use tabbed browsing a lot and flip things I'm interested in into new tabs
 & leave them to load while I do something else. It's very annoying to go to
read and find that I have to wait again (OK, this is almost a repeat of the
first).

I have done some usability testing (probably 3-4 years ago now) on a site with
long pages - I noticed that users consistently opened the page, scrolled
scanning for headings to check that it was what they wanted, then settled in
and started reading more closely. By the end of reading the first screenful,
they were starting to look for a 'printable' version or getting ready to print
(assuming it was useful).

HTH

Donna

On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 11:57:55 -0500, Thomas.Donehower wrote
> Hi, 
> 
> I'm trying to make a decision about long scrolling pages (equivalent 
> of 3 printed 8.5X11 pages or longer). My feeling is that they are OK 
> and are in fact probably better than separate pages especially if 
> the piece was meant to be read as a whole. However, I have no data 
> to support my position. I am leaning toward long scrolling pages for 
> individual article-type content pages for these reasons:
> 
> 1. I don't have to introduce another form of navigation 
> 2. Easier for the user to print
> 3. I believe it's easier for the user to scan and read as a whole
> 
> If anyone has any thoughts on the pros and cons of long scrolling 
> pages, please weigh in. Again, I am talking about "Article-type 
> pages" not category or home pages. Imagine you're reading an article 
> online and you see the text continue below the fold, you scroll (or 
> maybe you dont?) and see the page continues for a couple more page 
> lengths. Is this bad? Is there a better way that this content should 
> be served up to you as a user? 
> 
> I did scan IAWIKI and the archives, but didn't find anything. 
> 
> -TD