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Scrolling vs. clicking is not just about printability; it is also about
usability. When I am dawdling on my lunch hour, I don't mind clicking on
billions (OK, small exaggeration) of pages because I'm not intent on an
overall research goal. When I'm seriously researching, however, I may
quickly skim huge quantities of information in order to find the nuggets I
need. Clicking and reloading requires lots more time than hitting the
"page down" button. I actually read the entire 22 pages (as Jason said) of
Hoffman's "Enabling Extremely Rapid Navigation in Your Web or Document" ( http://www.pdr-is.com/infoaxcs.htm) on-line. Because I could scan it, I
only took a few minutes. If I had clicked and reloaded, I'd still be
reading it.
I generally do not print 100 pages to find the two pages of information I
need, but I may read 300 pages to print two pages of appropriate
information. Either way, when I'm puttin' in serious cognitive effort,
clicking and reloading is a waste of time and system resources. :-) When
I'm hangin' out at lunch, clicking is ok.
Fit the method first to the user, the message, and the goal, and then to
the medium.
Back to the scary document I'm avoiding, sigh,
Catherine Janzen
CBSI
cjanzen -at- clrmnt -dot- com
