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Comment by rdwallis | Hacker News Reader

Scanning and skimming is a problem caused by UI. The way we scroll text on computers and other devices destroys reading flow.

I built an extension / bookmarklet that allows you to scroll websites in a different way and goes a long way to solving this problem on desktop browsers. I hope no one minds me reposting it, it was very popular on hn a while ago.

http://www.magicscroll.net/ScrollTheWeb.html

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Overall, I love the idea and see the value in it. Yes, post again when relevant.

Here are a few suggestions for the demo page: Several pages of sample text would make the idea easier to evaluate. The demo would benefit from some simple instructions (show/hide instructions). I stumbled upon the functionality accidentally by using the mouse scroll wheel out of habit. It took a while before I noticed the play buttons in the bottom right. The speed adjuster is tedious to adjust. I was out of sample text before I got it adjusted to a comfortable speed. The arrows on the sides of the page don't seem to fit with the idea. I am not sure what they are for besides going back. Maybe a clickable left to right progress bar would be better. Another idea would be a vertical thumbnail of the whole document highlighting my current position.

"That's because scrolling moves the text on a page. And moving text, even if it's under your control, will break your reading rythym."

There is actually another reason against scrolling, which is judder. Check for example the judder section on http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-virtual-isnt-real-...

I find that line more distracting than scrolling.

I don't know what the solution might be, but this is not it.

The line takes a bit of getting used to. The trick is not to use it to underline the text you're currently reading but to keep the line a good distance ahead of where you are in the text.

I think it might be more natural if it had gradient below the line: http://i.imgur.com/8ku3OoL.png

I'm not sure if white or black gradient would be better though.

Thanks, this is a common suggestion and I've tried a version with a shadow below the line. It is far more distracting especially when you use the autoscroll feature (play button at the bottom right corner.)

If you want to experiment the source code is at https://github.com/rdwallis/MagicScrollWebReader

The line is an impossible challenge to design because the break between pages should be very obvious but also not distracting to the reader.

I find the already read text distracting. I would like everything within peek-ahead distance to be new text. Perhaps a white gradient below the line would work, or a three line tall moving white bar instead of the line.

Thanks for posting/making this. Using the scroll technique to read the copy on your webpage did appear to feel a bit more "natural" than other webpages. Look forward to experimenting a bit more with it.

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