David Pogue Calls Out 18 Sites For Failing His Space-Bar Scrolling Test (yahoo.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Yahoo Finance's David Pogue: You know this tip, don't you? When you tap the Space bar, the web page you're reading scrolls up exactly one screenful... But in recent years, something clumsy and unfortunate has happened: Web designers have begun slapping toolbars or navigation bars at the top of the page. That's fine -- except when it throws off the Space-bar scrolling! Which, most of the time, it does.

Suddenly, tapping Space doesn't scroll the right amount. The lines you were supposed to read next scroll too high; they're now cut off. Now you have to use your mouse or keyboard to scroll back down again. Which defeats the entire purpose of the Space-bar tip. Over the last few months, I've begun keeping track of which sites do Space-bar scrolling right -- and which are broken. I want to draw the public's attention to this bit of broken code, and maybe inspire the world's webmasters to get with the program.
Pogue's article announces "the world's first Space-Bar Scrolling Report Card," shaming sites like the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New Yorker, and Scientific American for their improperly-scrolling web sites. (As well as, ironically, Yahoo -- the parent company of the site Pogue is writing for.) Pogue writes that web programmers "should get their act together so that the scroll works as it's supposed to. (And if you work for one of those sites, and you manage to get the scrolling-bug fixed, email me so I can update this article and congratulate you.)"

Comments

Perhaps

[Hognoxious]

Perhaps he should check sites for whether, when you follow a link and return, it takes you back to where you were or to the top of the page.

Not the real problem - Toolbars are!

[cycler]

Well, the fact that some of the text gets obscured by a toolbar isn't the problem.

The real issue IS all the toolbars that remain in place when you are scrolling.
Who ever thought it was a good idea to steal my vertical pixels should be shot at dawn.

Even with Full HD screen there is still LESS vertical pixels than what I had 15 years ago on an old 21" 1600x1200 CRT.
"Progress" my as.

Seriously, could someone in web design please explain WHY keeping a toolbar on the top is a good idea?

/C

And while we're at it

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

And while we're at it, can we name and shame the fucktards who implement the "infinitely scrolling" page feature?

I hate that shit- you can't bookmark the page properly, and if you back up to it then it either loses it's memory of where you were (forcing you to scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll down to where you were) OR it forces you to reload 150 pages of crap back to get back to where you were. Either way its a pain in the ass and a hostile UI design.

Re:Didn't you know?

[lgw]

Why do you think the key is called "Enter" to begin with? Think about it. It was the key that entered (submitted) form data. That's what the key meant for 30+ years before the PC (let alone the mouse) was invented. "Return" was a different key entirely, one that took the same action as a carriage return on a typewriter (and sometimes labeled with the down-and-right arrow).

The real mistake was combining the functions of these two, distinct keys in the early PC days - at the time, terminal keyboards still did it right. Then a bunch of kids re-invented form submission, ignoring decades of best practices in usability.

Enter for form submission was the standard and the correct standard since before you were born. That's what the name of the key means ffs. Now get off my lawn!

Re:Didn't you know?

[lgw]

You can no longer discover the keyboard shortcuts in Windows. Discoverability is the victim in the latest user-hostile UI fads.