We don’t recommend using infinite scroll because it has many significant accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) issues:
- You can’t go back to your previous place using browser “back” button.
- You can’t easily get to the footer or the last items in the infinite scroll.
- There is a large memory footprint if loading big images.
- It doesn’t work without JavascriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/..
- You can’t access elements with keyboard only.
- There is no consistent audible feedback or instructions about how infinite scrolling works for assistive technologies.
- There is no URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org to a specific place on the page.
- And the list goes on…
There is a great summary in the “Reconsider the usage of infinite scrolling across the admin” tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. ticket for more information.
Recommendations
Pagination with page numbers removes all the issues mentioned above.
If the number of items to load is not too high, “Load more items” buttons could work as well. However, that option is limited to sequential usage and doesn’t provide any methods to access previously loaded items or the very last items to load.
Resources
Resources mostly focused on accessibility
- So You Think You’ve Built a Good Infinite Scroll
- Infinite scrolling in Simply accessible
- Infinite scrolling and accessibility
- Infinite scrolling – impact on assistive technologies
- From a screen reader user’s point of view: Infinite Scroll & Accessibility! Is It Any Good?
Resources mostly focused on usability
- Infinite scroll search-friendly recommendations
- Infinite scrolling in Nielsen Norman Group
- The UX of Infinite Scroll: The Good, the Bad, and the Maybe
- How infinite scrolling breaks UX
- Infinite Scrolling, Pagination Or “Load More” Buttons?
- Infinite Scroll: Let’s Get To The Bottom Of This
