... works as a web developer in Hveragerði, Iceland, and writes about the web, digital publishing, and web/product development
These are his notes
“Two Browsers Walked Into a Scrollbar”
One issue I have with current design trends is that obtrusive scrollbars are a massive aid for readers: an obtrusive scrollbar helps the reader unconsciously situate themselves in a long text and improves recall.
Of course, minimaps would be better. There’s research dating back to the 90s showing that minimaps are a substantial aid to reading recall.
And now we have neither: useless disappearing scrollbars and no minimaps.
Jack Baty How did I not know there was an "Always show scroll bars" option on macOS? That's so much better, thanks! Why anyone would deliberately hide them is beyond me.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran @jack Sometimes people prefer visual esthetic over useful functionality. I’m not one of them.
Jack Baty @odd Assuming they are mutually exclusive, I agree. This new iPhone feels like the first obvious case for which they’ve opted for the functionality over aesthetic. Probably a good sign, but it’s still a little shocking to me.
Jack Baty @odd Whoops, I thought this was a response to my post about the new iPhone, sorry! 100% with you.
Matthew Smith @jack Because the scrollbars were never hidden until Lion (2011)...
Jack Baty @SuperMoof A terrible "improvement" IMHO. I remember being upset about it at the time, and maybe I even found the setting then but had forgotten since. Happy to have been reminded.
Dr. Adam Procter @jack I got use to the show when scrolling but for a long while I had them always on, at some point I think the type of mouse you had forced always on for a while when this first was a feature, I quiet like them getting out of the way when reading now
Smokey Ardisson Yes! I remember people complained about it when 10.7 introduced them on the Mac, and the retort was that everyone had been using scrollbarless “windows” on iOS just fine…. Having now used iOS for a few years, I can assure those retorters that it is a giant pain not having visible scrollbars most places.
(I am similarly annoyed that the map scale is only visible on iOS…when in the act of zooming the map! How can I tell how far something is if I can’t see the scale and try to use it at the same time! Lunacy. All to hide a few pixels.)
@smokey Yeah. This drive towards aesthetic minimalism is compromising basic navigation and wayfinding in many cases.
Smokey Ardisson That’s a great way of putting it. (I intially misread “aesthetic” as “ascetic” 😂)