Pages that get longer
Jan 21, 2020 19:08:50 GMT -8
Post by Uncle Buddy on Jan 21, 2020 19:08:50 GMT -8
When you do a search on a website and results are returned in a table, each row represents one result found. When you get to the bottom of the page, the page expands, the scrollbar changes sizes, and you just lost your place. Typically the webpage can't read your mind and tell you what you were looking at when it lost your place for you. So you'll have to figure out where you were. When you get back to the bottom of the page again, the page expands again and you get lost again.
This misfeature is prominent in at least two of the most popular genealogy sites. One way to fight it is to scroll to the bottom first and make sure every result has loaded before you try to start reading from the top down. This won't work if there are hundreds of results but it's better than nothing when it does work.
Ancestry.com doesn't do this. The page has x number of results on it and when you get to the bottom of the page, you click a button to go to the next page of results. This puts the user in control, which is what users want.
Why do websites do this? Simple answer: everyone is aping Facebook these days. But Facebook is not a table of search results which you're trying to carefully scour one by one. On Facebook you're supposed to get lost. That's the purpose of Facebook. The genie search sites that have adopted this behavior should think about the purpose of their page and do away with this misfeature.
This misfeature is prominent in at least two of the most popular genealogy sites. One way to fight it is to scroll to the bottom first and make sure every result has loaded before you try to start reading from the top down. This won't work if there are hundreds of results but it's better than nothing when it does work.
Ancestry.com doesn't do this. The page has x number of results on it and when you get to the bottom of the page, you click a button to go to the next page of results. This puts the user in control, which is what users want.
Why do websites do this? Simple answer: everyone is aping Facebook these days. But Facebook is not a table of search results which you're trying to carefully scour one by one. On Facebook you're supposed to get lost. That's the purpose of Facebook. The genie search sites that have adopted this behavior should think about the purpose of their page and do away with this misfeature.