Is it fear of the unknown? Motion sickness? Stubborness? Why are some people so opposed to scrolling web pages? I think I can help some of you to convert.

I'm not talking about extremes, I'm talking about reasonable scrolling, no more than three pages down. I actually think there are cases where "paging" (those little link menus that allow you to see first, last, and pages in between, usually represented ten at a time) is more distracting than simply scrolling down a page.

There is nothing wrong with scrolling but I think there may be some folks out there that could use a few tips. Here are two big tips: Arrow keys and a mouse with a "scroll" wheel. 

Up and down arrow keys work really well. I can't encourage people enough to learn as many key commands as possible when using their computers. The less you touch that mouse, the better and faster you will go. That is actually a subject for another article so I'll stay on topic here. Unhand that mouse and sit back, take a breath. Locate the arrow keys, get a feel for the up and down. Ok, now start reading... get to the bottom of the screen... and... push the Down Arrow key. Wow! It works. So tap on that key a little more and keep reading.

I think the other invention based on necessity that evolved on our desktops is the mouse with a scroll wheel. I like it less than the arrow keys but find it useful with pages where I'm also having to click a lot. It is still much easier than trying to catch that little handle on the scroll bar. 

Why do I even write about this? I have designed many web pages and have experienced thousands of websites. I see sites designed to show all content on the page in one standard page view. Ok, that is a style choice but I wouldn't say that's better usability.

I have heard about people that have missed content on websites because they did not scroll down. I only hear these things occasionally but they are concerns of some of my clients so I listen no matter how odd it seems to me.

Maybe I just like scrolling. Not really, it's just part of how things work on the Internet and websites. Come to think  of it, most software applications force us to scroll, like any word processing application. I've never heard anyone complain about scrolling down a MicroSoft Word document. Then again, there are so many other complaints waiting in line before scrolling there.

We turn the pages in a book and read from left to right, top to bottom. If we didn't turn the page, we wouldn't get anywhere. The difference is we have had books in our lives far longer than computers. The mechanics of a book are genius in their simplicity.

As a designer of websites and interactive media, I'm not going to let scrolling effect the way I'm designing a page. We can't design for the minority and we need to educate our clients. Did I write this article to be a certain length to make you scroll? I'm not sorry.