Have you ever stopped to think about whether the way we scroll and swipe makes sense❓

Tom Garcy
2 replies
What do you dare to challenge? Scrolling and swiping have become ingrained in our daily digital interactions. We use these gestures on our smartphones, tablets, and computers to navigate through content, scroll through social media feeds, and browse websites. As UX designers and developers, it’s our responsibility to challenge our assumptions and question whether our current practices truly provide the most efficient and seamless user experience possible. By doing so, we can create interfaces that are not only ergonomic and user-friendly but also push the boundaries of what’s possible in the digital realm. With the ever-increasing speed and efficiency of technology, it’s natural to question whether our current touch gestures are still the best option for navigating digital content. Back in 2007, when the first iPhone was launched, the concept of natural scrolling was introduced. It revolutionized the way we interacted with digital content. When you scrolled up, the content at the bottom would appear, just as if you were physically moving a piece of paper upwards. This intuitive behavior quickly became the norm for scrolling on smartphones and has been used ever since. Then, in 2011, Apple introduced natural scrolling to desktop computers as well, flipping the scrolling direction for both the mouse and trackpad. BUT. With the current implementation of natural scrolling, we often find ourselves moving away from the content we’re trying to access. For instance, when scrolling up, we need to stop, move our fingers back down select the desired item that has been dragged into the view. This motion takes us away from the content, rather than bringing it closer to our interaction point. Instead of moving our finger up while the content scrolls down, wouldn’t it make more sense for us to move our finger down while the content scrolls up? In doing so, the desired item would eventually come to us, eliminating the need for additional movements. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider the logic of scrolling. Read the first full article at the Laboratory for innovative and disruptive user experience (UX): https://unuxpected.design

Replies

Daniel Feles
I love this thought experiment. questioning the status quo, especially in the topic of UI and UX. I often think patterns we use every day today were defined by technical constraints 10+ years ago, and now we are so used to them that it's hard to imagine there is any other way. Can't wait to see more about Kyugo :)