On the surface, infinite scrolling seems like a easy, intuitive way for users to access the content on your site. It seems easy enough to implement and work into your Lakeland website design. However, you have to know that while infinite scrolling can work well on certain websites, it might not work out for the best for yours.
Before we get into that, let’s explain what infinite scrolling is in relation to your web design. Infinite scrolling is a design feature that provides all of the site content into one, neverending page which allows the user to simply scroll down without having to get into any links unless something intrigues them outside of the scrolled area.
Infinite scrolling seems like a great idea because of how well it works with mobile devices. More than half to today’s online users are mobile users, and infinite scrolling is perfect for their needs. Because it’s such a limited space, site owners implement infinite scrolling to allow mobile users access to their content without requiring them to do any other gestures aside from scrolling down.
You can understand and appreciate the convenience in many social media websites. From Instagram, to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and so much more, these are sites that utilize the infinite scrolling feature perfectly. Because these sites have content that is constantly being updated on a daily basis, it won’t do to implement a pagination system, which means having to click a link to take you to the next page of content. Sites that make use of infinite scrolling are also faster, because the content loads up as the user scrolls down, so they don’t have to wait for the next page to load every time.
However, if used badly, infinite scrolling can backfire on you and your website. Infinite scrolling works well for social media sites because of how much content gets updated everyday, but infinite scrolling won’t really work well for let’s say, an eCommerce site. Because your products have to be categorized accordingly, an infinite scrolling feature will only serve to confuse and overwhelm your customers.
Infinite scrolling also makes it difficult for navigation, as the only way to go is down the page. So if you’re interested in seeing older content, this feature makes it difficult for your users to navigate anywhere further than the more recent content.
Before implementing an infinite scrolling feature into your Lakeland website design, you have to first ask yourself if this really is the best decision for your website. If done well, it drastically improves user experience, but implemented incorrectly can result in a loss in site visitors and a drop in site rankings, so take the time to think this through and do the appropriate research.