Can anybody point to an implementation of infinite scroll that actually works? I know facebook's implementation doesn't work correctly because the scrollbar breaks when scrolling down using it.
Salient points seem to be:
# Update URL during scrolling so links don't break, and link to the "deep" item not just the first page.
# Don't break history, so back/forward/reload buttons act as would be expected.
# Truly endless scrolling kills browsers due to consuming increasing resources, so don't do it. Seems that a compromise might be: larger page sizes that lazy-load content up to a sensible max length. For example, in a data set of 1,000 results perhaps display the first 10 immediately and lazy-load up to 50 during scrolling. Then normal paging occurs. (Max items per page could be user-selected, as is currently seen sometimes.) Items that have scrolled off the top of the page could be removed from the DOM too, and lazily reloaded on demand.
# Endless scrolling is not always appropriate, but there may be appropriate use cases. It would be good to identify these cases, perhaps through user testing.
# Obviously, it shouldn't break screen readers or text-only browsers etc. These should be handled gracefully.... which raises the question of how to effectively navigate through a large list, possibly of unknowable length, in these browsers.
I feel sure I've seen various of these, but not all together in one implementation. Anyone seen somewhere that does all this well?
Any further suggestions/criticisms of this pattern?
I think I might start overriding the existing methods which users are used to with this method because I've build websites for a couple of years and think I know better than years of UI development by much more experienced people than I.
It would be nice to know if we're making progress on problems like this. Paging and scrolling both evolved to solve problems. Perhaps they're imperfect, or could stand improvement. Perhaps not. Regardless, an open-minded discussion would probably shed some light on current thinking.