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This article is about how to choose paging or loading in web development interaction design. The editor thinks it is very practical, so share it with you as a reference and follow the editor to have a look.

The author @ Zimu yoyo posted on his personal blog. Whether in web pages or mobile applications, the information is often not fully displayed on one page, which requires some interactive modes that can expand the information of the page: Pagination and Continuous Scrolling. Paging and loading are very common interaction modes, and we encounter them every day, and it is precisely because they are so common that we can't even feel them. When we browse to the bottom of the page, we click on them when we see the paging. Automatically load and continue reading.

But it is this small point that will also bring users a very different subtle feeling. In this article, we will talk about the big differences made by these small differences.

Pagination

Paging can divide large pages into small pieces and display them on separate consecutive pages, making it easy for users to understand and find. It can let users know clearly how much content they want to browse, which part they have browsed, and how much is left. Paging allows users to have clear expectations of what they are browsing.

Longer articles are bound to be paginated. One is to give users the expectation of how much content, and the other is to provide a pause for the viewer. How desperate it would be for a user to read an article that has been flipped more than a dozen screens and the scroll bar still stays in the middle of the browser.

If you take a look at search engines and e-commerce sites, you will also see paging controls.

When searching or viewing a list of items, the amount of content is simply unpredictable, and the first function of paging is to tell the user the amount of information to browse. Second, paging allows users to quickly skip some unwanted information, or quickly jump to the first or last page and choose what they want to browse. Third, paging is very easy to locate and find. Maybe when I was searching for a skirt, I had already turned to page five when I suddenly remembered that there seemed to be a good one on the second page. I could jump directly and find it quickly.

The paging control actually creates a natural pause for the content of the site, which, if used well, can make the product more rhythmic. But when users finish browsing a page of content, they have to stop reading and click to jump to get more content. There is no denying that this pause will interrupt the user's train of thought to some extent. When it comes to paging, users are likely to think about whether to continue browsing. Or leave the website? So when you encounter paging, you tend to lose some users.

Continuous loading

Continuous loading is an interactive mode contrary to paging, and there is no obvious boundary or pause between information. When the page scrolls to the bottom, the new information is automatically loaded.

A variety of social networks particularly like to use this control, users will not be interrupted, can smoothly continue to browse, immersed in it.

However, because the information is loaded automatically, the page does not seem to be over, so it is difficult to predict how much content the page has. Blindly loading will make users feel lost: how much content is there on this page? How much content have I viewed? When can I finish reading this page? For this kind of page without pause, it is also difficult for users to search for information they have seen before. However, for this kind of leisure and entertainment-based social products, it is very appropriate to use the loading mode that does not interrupt the user information flow.

When using a paging control, the user must click to see more content, so the information acquisition is actively requested by the user. When using continuous loading, the new information is loaded automatically and the user accepts it passively.

The way of compromise

Paging and loading have their own advantages and disadvantages, and many websites today also take some compromise: paging and loading together.

For example, Quora will automatically load 4 times after a "More" button, after a continuous flow of information, give users a pause, let them take the initiative to get more information.

Sina Weibo also adopted this compromise, automatically loading twice and then paging. For most users, browsing Weibo in their spare time, loading twice of the content has been enough for them, for users who need to browse more information, also let them know how much they have browsed.

In order to enable users to see more pictures quickly, Google image search also uses continuous loading, but when searching for pictures, users also need to be clear about their location, and they are likely to go back to find the pictures they have just seen, so Google will also mark the page number on the same page to facilitate positioning and search. This is another compromise.

Mobile phone client

On mobile phones with smaller screens and more changeable scenarios, swiping is obviously easier and less likely to misoperate than precise clicks. The mobile product information architecture is relatively simple, the user browsing time is relatively short, and the attention is relatively distracted when using it. So most app will use continuous loading. Loading is also more space-efficient than paging controls.

However, products like search engines still retain the paging design.

The choice of loading or paging is only a small point in the design, but great products are made up of countless such dots. According to the characteristics of the product, choosing the most appropriate way of interaction is what the interaction designer should do.

Thank you for reading! This is the end of the article on "choose paging or loading in web development interaction design". I hope the above content can be of some help to you, so that you can learn more knowledge. if you think the article is good, you can share it for more people to see!

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