Author: xmf

Endless or bottomless scrolling seems intuitive in social media design, however, it was only recently created by Aza Raskin. While thinking of infinite scrolling he was being considerate of user needs and wants about the desire to see more. Aza Raskin simplifies the decision making of exploring social media but deducing if a user is already at the bottom of a page they want to see more. By acknowledging what the user wants he takes the initiative of providing them the information they crave for. He makes a reference to drinking wine where the stopping point would be when the bottle or glass is empty.
That is the stopping cue when drinking wine and the stopping cues Aza Raskin removes were the buttons for more or next page.

As far as I know, he was the mind behind infinite scrolling. He removed the design of stopping cues and added the design of loading more content, creating a seamless transition. Aza Raskin was a designer targeting use experience which he sees from other forms of media like Google or Facebook. He has done research on how web browsers should be designed for mobile use, what interfaces can do with your data, and more. The act of searching comes to an end when a goal is met. Knowing that if a user wants more content resulting in him taking away the decision to decide if they want to continue.

As a fairly new design principle, bottomless scrolling changes how the user perceives information and social media. There is a larger information dump when content is constantly loaded up for the user which can be a pro or a con.
A new update on Instagram changed unless scrolling to change into content which is recommended instead of content you’ve already seen before. This is a revolutionary way to receive information as items the user didn’t have in mind may pop up. Instead of the use of pages, which have a sense of completion, endless scrolling gives users an addictiveness to the product. Interestingly, Aza Raskin has apologized for the design as it has made social media more addicting.

Sources:
Netflix documentary, “Abstract: The Art of Design”, season 2 episode 5
Raskin, A. (n.d.). Who aza human? Retrieved September 04, 2020, from http://aza.wtf/