http://web-design.dunway.com
TO MAKE MONEY USING GOOGLE ADSENSE - CLICK HERE
|
Does your website have scroll bars? It might not seem like an especially important question, but it is. In fact, when it comes to website usability, the question of scrolling is one of the most vital ones out there.
One of those eternal questions of web design is whether users are fine with scrolling, or whether they hate it. In reality, the answer lies somewhere between the two: plenty of users don't mind scrolling in the least, but there are plenty of users who still just don't scroll. The very young (with low attention spans) and the very old (with poor hand-eye co-ordination) are the two biggest groups in this category, but it is also true of people who are just new to the web. You should be designing your site so that scrolling gives added value, but isn't essential for basic usability.
Since the beginnings of the web, people have become much more receptive to scrollable pages, thanks to mouse wheels and similar devices. These let them scroll with a quick flick, instead of the inconvenience it used to take. As a result, your visitors will be much more
willing to scroll on your website than they used to be, and this works
to your advantage. Still, you shouldn't rely on it completely.
The answer, then, when it comes to scrolling, is to be sensitive about it. Place everything important in a position that allows it to be reached with no scrolling even on the smallest monitors. Give your users the choice of whether to scroll or click, by linking to the individual parts of the article at the top of the page in a table of contents. In short, let the scrollers scroll, but don't hide anything from the people who don't want to.
Whatever you do, though, keep your scrolling vertical. Left-to-right scrolling on the web is an absolute abomination. Users aren't expecting it, mouse wheels can't do it, and web browsers aren't designed for it. In short, it is a very, very bad idea. Every so often some designer will come along and try to make it work, thinking they're being edgy and innovative (after all, no-one else is doing it), only to produce a completely terrible website. In the history of the web so far, there has never been a good horizontally scrolling website, and you're not going to be the designer who produces one.
Another common design mistake when it comes to scroll bars is to think that you can do it better than the web browser, and use Flash to create non-standard scroll bars. While you might like the look you create, it will inevitably be less useful to your visitors than a normal scroll bar would have been. Your scroll bar won't be immediately recognisable as what it is. It's unlikely to work with mouse wheels or keyboard shortcuts, and you probably won't even let users scroll by clicking in exactly the way they want. You end up designing a scroll bar that's ideal for you, but frustrating for everyone else. However ugly you might think the default scroll bars are, people know how they work, and they're used to them - they don't want to learn something new just to use your website.
No matter how down you are on scroll bars, it's always a bad idea to replace them with pagination. An article can easily become three or four pages long with the user having to click a 'next' button to get from one page to the next, & that's just unacceptable on the web - especially since, on smaller screens, some scrolling will be required anyway. If you think users dislike scrolling, then you have to realise that they dislike waiting for new pages to load even more: if your site requires them to wait for more than a few seconds between pages, they'll abandon articles even if they're in the middle of reading them. |
WEB DESIGN INDEX LISTING
Article Content - Free & Re-Printable!
Guidelines & Information for Publishers
Dunway Enterprises offers free
article content [this means, as a publisher you may re-print my article(s)
subject to the terms & conditions that generally apply to free
content articles.
The most common of these are:
|
Disclaimer: Information
shown in the article shown above
does not in any way constitute medical, financial or legal advice.
If you require such advice, you should seek appropriate professional guidance.
|
"A battle-tested AdSense Manual
that picks up where Google left off,
handing you the secret keys to multiplying your Google AdSense Income
with a series of lazy - 10 second tweaks!"
FREE GIFTS CLICK HERE
Potential keywords for your
next Google ad campaign
Adsense Killer
Keywords
THAT YOUR LOOKING FOR - CHECK OUT THE CLICKBANK CATALOGUE
Over 10,000 Products to Choose From!
Computing
& Internet - Money
& Employment - Marketing
& Ads
Fun
& Entertainment - Sports
& Recreation - Society
& Culture
ClickBank the best way to complete a digital sale.
If you're into Niche Resale Rights Products
then check out my eBooks Site
which has 120 + different eBook Packages and
still growing.
The Ultimate Recipe Collection [Cook Books]
CURRENTLY
[57] DIFFERENT RECIPE E-BOOKS ON THIS PAGE
CLICK
HERE TO VIEW THE LIST
Mail Order Products
Dunway Enterprises || Dunway Sitemap
WebMaster & Site Design by Ken Dunn
Dunway's Network of Joint Venture Sites
CLICK HERE TO SEND MAIL
Copyright [c] Dunway Enterprises