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Pagination on the Internet and why it’s weird

Pagination on the Internet and why it’s weird

A slightly aimless foray into how we sort collections of items on the internet, meant as a basis for a discussion on the topic.

Held at up.front Berlin in June 2012

Alex Feyerke

June 13, 2012
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Transcript

  1. Page 2 has no relationship to the content of the

    page. It has no more intrinsic meaning than next.
  2. So how is it supposed to work? Like in books.

    You know: where page numbers come from.
  3. On the internet: • Pages go from newest to oldest

    • Page content varies over time • Page numbers are for relative navigation only
  4. WAT

  5. Solution: • Number pages from first to last • Newest

    content stays left (because we read ltr) • We use older and newer instead of forward and back
  6. Now: • Page numbers are deterministic • Content is stable

    and linkable • Page numbers actually have inherent meaning • The whole thing actually makes sense • Dead easy to implement
  7. MEH

  8. Pagination: still relevant? • endless scrolling is everywhere • lots

    of collections change all the time anyway • no-one minded when pagination was broken • is a book really the best basis for an interaction pattern for collections of items?
  9. Pagination: still relevant? • content has changed • behaviours and

    expectations have also changed • finding things is different: less browsing, more searching, filtering, tags, recommendations etc.
  10. But pagination still is useful: • Are streams really applicable

    to everything? Naw. • Some collections are meant to be stable and long-lasting • Archivability is still useful there
  11. So if you‘re going to have page numbers, you might

    as well make them consistent and useful.