Re: Scrolling vs. Paging

On 5/21/07, Nikki Roberg <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am currently working on a project in which a part of the interface will
> display search results. This part of the interface will take up about 1/4+
> of the screen (if that even matters).
>
> During a group walkthrough with potential users 50% wanted to be able to
> scroll through a long list of results and 50% wanted to have the results
> paginated with links to the next set of results.
>
> I'm wondering if anyone knows of any research (aside from Piolat, A.
> Roussey, J-Y., and Thunin, Olivier (1997)) that discusses this issue and/or
> shows that one presentation may be better than another? I would also be
> interested in other ways of implementing the design.
>

IMO no research can supercede user preference.  If you have a clear 50
/ 50 split you should consider:

  (a) developing a new meme which satisfies the root desire of each set of users
        ( ajax load-on-demand ? )

  (b) sending a paginated set at first, and allowing to select a full
scrollable set

  (c) sending the full set, but hiding most of it unless a user
selects to have it fully scrollable.  That is to say, you can paginate
dynamically.

In a web application, (b) will generally be faster and/or allowed to
run more times per second than simply giving a full data set, and it's
the first avenue I would investigate.

-- 
Justin Alan Ryan, Director, VonGogo Foundation
Independent Interactivity Architect, ACM SIGGRAPH
http://www.siggraph.org/members/jryan
+1-415-226-1199

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