The value of “Continuous” scroll - elsewhere called “infinite” scroll - raised it’s head again yesterday after performing an image search on Google and the same one on the newly launched Bing. Both address image searching which as a designer can be one of the most time consuming and sometime life draining activities.

It is an activity with few shortcuts but many pitfalls. Unlike document searching, when looking for an image, particularly on Image banks such as Getty and Corbis (both of whom use pagination), it is often about encapsulating a mood and attitude or harmonising with an existing colour set. Composition of the shot is also important. Expressions and body language critical. Image banks don’t cater to the user effectively for these oft subjective metrics which means the user has the unenviable task of wading through “pages and pages” of ill fitting results.

Bing.com makes it a little easier by porting over their Live search implementation of continuous scroll. It is the same thing Apple have been doing at their shop for a while. Essentially pagination is removed and the entire data set is returned in one monumental vertical scrolling list. The clever bit comes thanks to AJAX, which incrementally loads items only when they are within or just about to appear within the viewport.

Corbis unfortunately retain pagination in it’s just launched re-design. In this context the choice is clear and it is not pagination.

Pagination necessitates horizontal (previous | next) and vertical navigation. Continuous scroll factors out the horizontal making it simpler for a user to orientate themselves to the information.

Pagination breaks up the user experience with it’s intermittent page refreshes and load waits. Continuous scroll however is inherently a seamless, smooth experience and with incremental loading means less time waiting which means browsing at speed.

With pagination the user’s memory capacity can get maxed quicker as they need to remember which image they liked, the quality of it as well as which page it was on. Admittedly the image banks address this issue with ‘Lightboxes’ however these normally require registration/login which is not applicable to Bing’s image search. As an aside, what would be cool is to think of these multi-column monsters as a fruit machine (one arm bandit) and “hold” images that are suitable for closer consideration.

The RSI peeps also prefer less clicks which can work in the favour of Continuous scroll.

On the downside long scrolling lists can increase eye fatigue…think of watching the world streaming past from a train window. Long scrolls can also be a little daunting and make signposting the content start and end more difficult…will this thing ever end!.

Google reader is a good example of the continuous scroll. Interestingly this deals with textual random data, not just images as discussed above.

There are hurdles of user expectation and performance to negotiate and above all the implementation should focus on the content and context. It nonetheless is a cool interface pattern worth considering next time you are dealing with large data sets.

If pagination is your thing or the context is different which fits this approach then adopting these simple techniques can make it a more pleasurable experience.
1) Show the maximum number of results that will fit the users screen without scrolling.
2) Fix the pagination controls in the same position on every page. This means users can hammer the clicker to page through at speed without moving their mouse.
3) Provide a “Show all”
4) Check out the pagination 101for more basics and loads of examples.

More discussion can be found at IxDA

Continuous Scroll
Pagination Vs Scrolling

^ Call to action close up

The recent Orange campaign had the unusual call to action of prompting the reader to search for “I am.” This was interesting for three reasons. Magical. Firstly that it marked an evolution from the days when web links first appeared. I remember marketing departments getting concerned whether to include the WWW in the link. Will it work? Will people understand? And sure enough the WWW’s gradually disappeared. People still got it and browsers resolved the URL.

Secondly that it necessitates that the SEO development team optimise the Orange content so that it appears when someone follows the advert direction or else pay for Ad Words which guarantee visibility. The latter  seems unnecessarily expensive as the more successful the campaign call to action, the more Ad Words need to be bought.

Thirdly, it seems to me that the strategy has less to do with technicality than psychological persuasion. By asking people to type the campaign line into a search engine subconsciously reinforces the central thought “I am” through repetition and active sifting through the results to find the Orange result. A successful searcher not only gets the information but is an active participant in the discovery giving them a greater sense of ownership and engagement. They won the treasure hunt. Hurrah, winning feels good. Campaign WIN.

The unsuccessful searcher still engages with the brand and message and is likely to re-search however there is risk that the searcher doesn’t get the payoff, feels irritated and goes elsewhere. Campaign FAIL.