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Voxera113971yOn a list of short news where the newest is at the top I find that pull to refresh works quite well, but thats the only case where its easier and more intuitive. If scrolling to the newest reaches the first and you continue then try to fetch more.
In all other cases its at best not useful and as you said mostly bad.
On the other hand, at least on desktop, cnn adds a fixed “x new articles” button that counts up as new unviewed news are created and that dutton not only loads the new (using ajax so no full reload) but also scrolls you to the top.
That better.
The worst is a few of the local newspapers that have a reload of the front page on s timeout, so if you are halfway down the page and happen to not interact for a few minutes it reloads automatically and still does not change the scroll position.
But the content have moved and you might need to scroll several pages to find it, and they might have ordered articles in an other order depending on which had the most clicks.
Thats a really bad experience. -
Nah, it’s fine
Just don’t fucking refresh without my consent when I’m reading something -
@webketje Not on Android though. Explicit button on top right and bottom left Feed button.
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It's not a fad, it's a design pattern.
https://ui-patterns.com/patterns/...
I can't agree with you, I'm afraid. And the battery power part is just hater. ☠️ -
Btw I didn't notice the arrow and thought this was gonna be a rant on copyleft or something lol
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exerceo11851y@c3r38r170 The moment you lose valuable input due to accidentally scrolling against the top, you are going to change your mind.
You might say "I'm careful, this never happens to me!" - Even then, having to be careful takes energy away and interferes with your workflow. -
@exerceo Well no.
That has happened to me.
I don't have to be careful. I do agree having to be careful is a waste of energy.
Sometimes it's badly implemented. That's true about anything. Maybe it happens more often on this pattern.
But I can't hate it. -
exerceo1185342d@Pogromist Use the website, and use it in a browser other than Chrome Android 75 or newer.
Refreshing is rarely ever needed in practice. And when it is, it is just two taps away.
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Pull-to-refresh is useless.
If you are a mobile app developer, please get rid of pull-to-refresh. Your users will thank you.
I have the impression that mobile app developers choose to implement the pull-to-refresh gimmick just in order to make their app comply with a design trend. It seems like a desperate attempt to appear "modern" and "fancy", not because of the actual usefulness of the gesture.
Pull-to-refresh is one of those things that are well-intended but backfire. It appears helpful on first sight, but turns out to be a burden.
It takes effort and cognitive strain to avoid triggering a pull-to-refresh. The user can't use the app relaxed but has to walk on eggshells.
Every unwanted refresh wastes battery power, mobile data (if it is an Internet-connected app), and can lead to the loss of form data.
To avoid pull-to-refresh, the user has to resort to finger gymnastics like a shorter swipe for scrolling up or swiping slightly up before down. Pull-to-refresh could even be triggered while pinch-zooming in or out near the top of a page, if the touchscreen does not recognize one of the two fingers.
Pull-to-refresh also interferes with the double-tap-swipe zoom gesture. If one of the two taps are not recognized, a swipe-down to zoom in can trigger a pull-to-refresh instead.
To argue "if you don't like pull-to-refresh, just don't use it" is like blaming a person who stepped on a mine, since the person moved and the mine was stationary.
A refresh button can be half a second away in the menu bar, URL bar, or a submenu, where it is unlikely to be pressed accidentally. There is no need for a gesture that does more harm than good.
Using a mobile app with pull-to-refresh feels like having Windows StickyKeys forcibly enabled at all times. The refresh circle animation sticks to the finger.
If the user actually wants to refresh, pull-to-refresh is slower than a refresh button in a menu if the page is not at the top, meaning pull-to-refresh is useless as a shortcut anyway if the page is in any other position than the top.
An alternative to pull-to-refresh is pull-for-details. Samsung did it in some of their apps. Pulling down against the top reveals additional information such as the count and total size of selected items.
If you own a website, add this CSS to make browsing your website on the pre-installed Android web browser not a headache:
html,body { overscroll-behavior: none; }
Why is this necessary? In 2019, Google took the ability to deactivate the pull-to-refresh gesture on their Chrome browser for Android OS away from users. On Chrome for Android, pull-to-refresh can only be disabled on the server side, not the user side. The avalanche of complaints? Neglected.
Good thing several third-party browsers let the user turn off this severe headache.
rant
ux
pull-to-refresh