I like to scroll and I *always* use my back button.

No, you're not weird. Well, not for this reason anyway. It seems far more sensible to me to scroll down a page then to follow links. Not sure who these surfers are who like it the other way round. Maybe that's the next generation...

No I scroll too, and if there's something that I want and I can't see it on a page I'll scroll down to look for it too! Do you think these statistics that state these facts are maybe out of date? or are we perhaps not 'serious' enough surfers?

I'm a 'scroller' as well. Much rather do that than follow links.

Getting the balance right is one of the biggest problems in website design, too shallow a layout and pages get too big, become slow to download, and contain far more info than needed, too deep a layout and it takes too long to get anywhere.

An oft-quoted number is three-clicks, id est you should only ever be three clicks away from whatever you're looking for. This is easy to do for a small site with only a few dozen static pages, but once content is significant serious thought needs to go into indexing and navigation.

As with many things -- it's an easy problem to avoid in simple cases, but in complex ones it's very difficult to overcome. A probably designed website with a DB backend should be able to produce decent dynamic indices on the fly so you'll always have context sensitive specifics available, plus the general site navigation, however most medium-sized sites don't have the resources to do such, even if their site's complex enough to need it.

I think the most important thing of a page is that the top of the pages gives a good idea of what's on the rest of the page. I really hate it if after scrolling down a long page I come to the conclustion that it was not what I was looking for.

If I know that the page comtains stuff I want to read I prefer to scroll through the text.
If the text is really long I like an index on top, with in-page links so I can choose to scroll, or directly jump to the topic.

So scrolling is best for reading text, and linking is best for getting to the page I want to read.

I scroll, and use the back button all the time, and I don't mind hunting about for the information I want

I use the little scroll wheel on my mouse all the time...best way to surf...I hate links that take you in about 5 pages...I always use the back button on my browser as well.

I prefer to scroll & use back as well.

The pages that really bug me are the totally dynamic ones, that say "the current page has expired" even if you only want to go back one page.

Besides using the back button, I often use open-in-new-tab/window of galeon/mozilla to open a link in a new tab/window zo I can just read on on the current page an check out those links once I've finished the current page.

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by Tycho
I prefer to scroll & use back as well.

The pages that really bug me are the totally dynamic ones, that say "the current page has expired" even if you only want to go back one page.

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I couldn't agree more. I hate those pages

(Edited by Koala 18/12/2002 09:27)

I'm always lost on computers that have a mouse without a scroll wheel! I've got so used to using mine.

Also tend to use the space bar and 'End' button, especially on long threads on message boards.

Yup, another "scroller & backer" here.

Loadsa links just get annoying.

I hate scrolling if I can't use a mouse with a scroll wheel, but my home & work ones have them so I'm happy

Simple pleasures...

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by DJ Billy
Also tend to use the space bar and 'End' button, especially on long threads on message boards.

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I only found out that the space bar acted as a 'page down' button the other day when my cat rolled onto my keyboard.

Erm... I only just found that out... Thankyou

*would also be lost without a web mouse*
And I'm also a scroller and back buttoner hehe