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Yes and yes. Worked great for 30+ years. Don't mess with perfection.
The only scrollbars I remember myself liking had dots and letters to help you track your position in context.
Looking for Shogun? You're in the M's now, just a few more letters to go. Tap the S and you shot straight to that section.
That style only really works for media libraries in alphabetical order, though.
I despise the super narrow scroll bars that are near impossible to click on.
How do you feel about auto-hide scrollbars?
On a mobile device, I am 50/50. On a PC, there is no reason for it.
Macs default to visible scrollbars when a mouse is being used, and hidden scrollbars when a touchpad is being used. In this regard, they win.
I just like for them not to disappear or be too thin to click. UI has gotten so bad.
I do, but nearly all of them are awfully designed, especially on mobile.
On desktop the auto-hide makes scrollbars terrible - it's one of the worst UI offenses in the last 20 years.
We've had wide screens for 20 years, yet now you fucktards decide to auto-hide the scrollbars with no way to turn off?
How about you let me decide the value of my screen real-estate?
Seriously. There is no one solution for everyone. They gotta give us options.
also, should it be chunky and easy to click?
Should a doorknob be easy to use?
Should you pant zipper be easy to use?
Scrollbar used to be easy to use on computers, at one time. Then, designers took over the UI. Now, they're only about look. Usability? who gives a crap about that, right?
Probably the same designers, or from the same schools, that decided it was a great design to have rounded windows on rectangular screens, I imagine. But who am I to criticize professional designers...
At first glance I was like... the scroll bar as a doorknob. That would be far easier to use. There is always a margin on the right anyway, why not stick into the page.
I assumed that most people scroll with their scrollwheel and that scrollbar is just there to indicate the page size and current position
you can scroll faster with the scrollbar, and it is useful
Way, way faster if it's a long document
No. If I click below the scroll bar I generally want to go down one page. I click and drag if I want to go somewhere specific.
This is what seems to be normal. But let me ask this. You you ever actually click below to page down? I find I just use the scroll wheel rahter than try to click on the small of a target.
Not OP, but I always click below to page down. I hate scroll bars that jump directly to the destination because it’s always a guessing game as to how far the page will move. Short page? You moved half a line. Long page? Every pixel is 5 pages.
Honestly when it happens it's generally by accident. I click to drag and then miss or sometimes my thumb finds an invisible scroll bar on the edge of my phone. Still annoying and I'd prefer it only moved me a page.
yes. do some of them not do that? its handy sometimes but not the normal way I interact with it. heck I grab move up and down sometimes as it tends to be a bit more pinpoint than scrollwheel.
Yes but I mostly use the mouse wheel.
Same. Typically I start scrolling, and upon realizing how long the total is, I end up clicking the scrollbar
Sounds like you’re asking about Linux but the comm isn’t OS specific.
At work I found that Windows can make scroll bars always show. Auto hide is so annoying. I’m not a “Windows user” but I do use it at work. I don’t hate the corporate version of Windows 11 so much. I have it set up the way I want and it doesn’t shove AI or gaming up in my face like the Home and Pro versions do (Pro to a lesser extent).
On iOS, some scroll bars do jump down on tap, but I think the developer has to enable that. The real killer feature is tapping the top of the screen to jump to the top. One developer, Christian Selig (he’s a public figure, not throwing his full government out for no reason), made his app (Apollo for Reddit, now retired) let you tap the top of the screen a second time to jump back to where you were. Super cool.
Yes and yes. It took me a while to get used to but now, every time I'm on a system that doesn't do that it feels tedious.
ONLY if they don't overlap other UI elements
Yes
I honestly haven't actually used the on screen scroll bar since mice started having a scroll wheel in them by default.
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
49 points (98.0% liked)
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