The Case Against Infinite Scroll: UX Research Nobody Talks About
Infinite scroll has become one of the most widely adopted interface patterns on the internet. From social media feeds and news websites to eCommerce platforms and content hubs, users have grown accustomed to continuously scrolling through endless streams of information without ever clicking a "Next Page" button. At first glance, the concept seems brilliant. Remove friction. Eliminate pagination. Keep users engaged. Increase session duration. Expose more content. For years, these perceived benefits helped establish infinite scroll as a default design choice across many digital products. But despite its popularity, infinite scroll is not always the user-friendly solution many teams assume it is. In fact, a growing body of usability research and real-world user behavior suggests that infinite scroll can create significant usability problems when applied in the wrong context. The issue isn't that infinite scroll is inherently bad. The issue is that many organizations impleme...