Weekend Open Forum: Single page vs. multi-page reviews

[Kenrick]

It doesn't matter with me. You can't please everyone so stick to whatever you are using before.

 

[Misagt]

Honestly I'm ok with either, but it sounds like most prefer multi page and that is fine with me. The option to jump to the pages you want to view is nice.

 

[m4a4]

Both, but otherwise I view TechSpot on a decent PC, so single is nice.

 

[Julio Franco]

Thanks everyone for your feedback so far. I'm surprised (in a good way), it looks like we've been doing it right this whole time, trying to keep what we believed is a good a balance from the reader's perspective.

We have good navigation on desktop (Index scrolling menu + bottom index), while on mobile we only have the latter as not to overwhelm the user and UI with unnecessary elements. If there's anything on mobile that in your opinion could work better let me know here.

 

[Skjorn]

I feel like single page on mobile would be a ton of scrolling. Instead of scrolling 15ft on my mobile I would rather scroll hardly and get straight to what specific page or information I am interested in.
Sure it has to load a page but I don't have to sift through paragraphs of stuff I don't want to read either. The double option mentioned sounds pretty nice.

 

[davislane1]

We have good navigation on desktop (Index scrolling menu + bottom index), while on mobile we only have the latter as not to overwhelm the user and UI with unnecessary elements. If there's anything on mobile that in your opinion could work better let me know here.

Two issues with mobile:

1. Nav bar detaches when scrolling down the page, frequently getting "stuck" either in the middle of a comment or the text entry field.

Edit: added example image

2. Switching from portrait to landscape causes the page to scroll half-way up. For example, if you're reading a comment at the bottom of a thread and happen to tilt your phone 90 degrees, the page resets to the middle of the thread. Fairly annoying, especially if you read in portrait but compose in landscape.

 

[captaincranky]

...[ ]...2. Switching from portrait to landscape causes the page to scroll half-way up. For example, if you're reading a comment at the bottom of a thread and happen to tilt your phone 90 degrees, the page resets to the middle of the thread. Fairly annoying, especially if you read in portrait but compose in landscape.

Well, technically that's not a fault with mobile, the exact same thing would happen if you rotated your desktop monitor, simply by virtue of the page length being different in each orientation.

However, with a desktop monitor, you would be screwing around with the video settings each and every time you did it. In that regard, you should be instead saying, "god bless the mobile screen orientation protocols"...

 

[captaincranky]

...[ ]...Now, to be clear, we don't plan to change the length or depth of our feature content, what we're asking is strictly about how we format such content....[ ]...

Well, I maintain the monitor I'm going to be using for writing and posting "duties", in vertical orientation at all times. The page length is plenty, thank you very much. Changing to a single page scrolling format would, (IMHO), be a disaster. I'm picturing a tiny little, hard to grab, scroll handle, making a pure nuisance out of dealing with a lengthy article.

With that said, (and I full well realize I may not be in the majority here), I really appreciate being able to skip pages from time to time, and leap from the introduction, straight to the conclusions, with having to deal with my eyes glazing over, looking at endless FPS rates, for a couple of dozen games. (or laboring over benchmarks). So admittedly, I'm not the most rabid techie, not being a gamer, or an overclocker. On a CPU review though, I am a bit more attentive, but I still would rather have a multi-page article, than a single page scrolling nightmare.

 

[davislane1]

...[ ]...2. Switching from portrait to landscape causes the page to scroll half-way up. For example, if you're reading a comment at the bottom of a thread and happen to tilt your phone 90 degrees, the page resets to the middle of the thread. Fairly annoying, especially if you read in portrait but compose in landscape.

Well, technically that's not a fault with mobile, the exact same thing would happen if you rotated your desktop monitor, simply by virtue of the page length being different in each orientation.

There must be something in the theme code that can be added to fix/reduce the issue. The problem doesn't exist on all webpages.

 

[Julio Franco]

Two issues with mobile:
1. Nav bar detaches when scrolling down the page, frequently getting "stuck" either in the middle of a comment or the text entry field.

I've never seen this happen. Only happens on forum pages or anywhere on TS?
I see you're using Brave browser on iOS. Would you mind trying to replicate the same in Safari or Chrome in iOS?

I'll also try to replicate the orientation bug myself, though that may have to do with how the browser handled the keyboard and scroll state.

 

[captaincranky]

There must be something in the theme code that can be added to fix/reduce the issue. The problem doesn't exist on all webpages.

Keep in mind I was only commenting on the aspect ratio part of your issue. That's as I think it should be, (more or less), when transitioning from 16:9 to 9:16. The whole task bar detaching thing is something I have no insight or opinion with, of, or about.

 

[davislane1]

I've never seen this happen. Only happens on forum pages or anywhere on TS?
I see you're using Brave browser on iOS. Would you mind trying to replicate the same in Safari or Chrome in iOS?

I'll also try to replicate the orientation bug myself, though that may have to do with how the browser handled the keyboard and scroll state.

Just tested it in each browser. It appears to be exclusive to Brave when the keyboard is displayed.

 

[davislane1]

There must be something in the theme code that can be added to fix/reduce the issue. The problem doesn't exist on all webpages.

Keep in mind I was only commenting on the aspect ratio part of your issue. That's as I think it should be, (more or less), when transitioning from 16:9 to 9:16. The whole task bar detaching thing is something I have no insight or opinion with, of, or about.

I imagine the former problem could be fixed by adding a code that tracks what headings are being displayed on the current orientation. This seems to be how it works on websites that don't have the issue. It'll usually snap to the nearest heading or paragraph. Here on TS it just flies several comments up the page.

 

[captaincranky]

Well, in my own inimitable "don't know jack about programming" way. I'm wild guessing it's establishing cursor position via simple letter count, while maintaining the article header in frame. The lines of text are longer in landscape, but fewer of them will fit on the page. Hence, the cursor would tend to reposition itself upward. That solution also avoids hiding the story header above the top of the page.

That said, it's fairly logical what the program is doing. Whether that's "the best solution", is sort of subjective.

 

[mosu]

Multi-pages setup works for me.Current style is what I'm used to.

 

[SirDigby]

Multi-page or a contents section in the sidebar that scrolls as you scroll. Main thing for benchmarks and reviews is if I'm not particularly interested enough to read the whole thing I'll just cut to performance.

What I don't like for multi-page is your lists, for stuff like 7 best gadgets at CES or something, where its click the arrow for next item. I always press button for single page on those.

 

[EEatGDL]

Multi-page, I hate scrolling to reach a section.

 

[JordLevy]

Single page please!

 

[Skjetne]

Multi-page. Single is way to much info in one place, and with multi I can go straight to the info I want to know.

 

[Tanstar]

If it is a true review, multi-page is much better. I often just jump around to the sections I care about.

 

[DelJo63]

Design for MOBILE devices; ergo allow scrolling. Running request/reply per page is an abuse of the interface. Over loads the server and increases used data costs.

 

[captaincranky]

Design for MOBILE devices; ergo allow scrolling. Running request/reply per page is an abuse of the interface. Over loads the server and increases used data costs.

So are you suggesting that mobile users be given preferential treatment, and the rest of us simply either don't count, or just have to deal with it?

Quite frankly, if I had to use a phone as my only connection to the web, I wouldn't bother.

Needless to say, I won't be going through the profanity of streaming, "Lawrence of Arabia" (*), to my "mobile device" anytime soon.

(*) Sorry, I meant the 2:76 to 1:00 print of "Ben Hur" (1959 Charlton Heston)

 

[DelJo63]

No sir-- it's the point of view for developing a site: design for mobile devices and then alter the presentation for non-mobile. This makes the website coding far less difficult than approaching it the other way around.

 

[Fernando GC]

Bring back the 3DSpotlight!

 

[DelJo63]

Quite frankly, if I had to use a phone as my only connection to the web, I wouldn't bother.
Needless to say, I won't be going through the profanity of streaming, "Lawrence of Arabia" (*), to my "mobile device" anytime soon.

Me too. I don't mind using a tablet->hdmi->hdtv when traveling however.
I'm not into social networking where the mobile device is dominant, but still a full 40% of the devices accessing the internet are mobiles and it is rising :gulp: - - creating web page design issues that can be challenging.