Explaining the need to avoid horizontal scroll

Question

I need help explaining to my boss why her design is poor on a client\'s website. She has no knowledge of the web, and it can be difficult as a web developer working with a

Answer 1

You should give her examples and show her what she is trying to do. Do you really want to scroll horizontally to get to information on the other side of the page.

http://www.badwebsiteideas.com/horizontal.htm

Answer 2

Can the entire banner and all the component images within it be scaled down to be narrower? (admittedly it woudl also be shorter, may be more difficult to read etc). Then if the face on the right is really important it woudl still be visible... Horizontal scroll is just really really bad. But I guess you (and everyone else) already knew that :)

Answer 3

Hmm. It sounds like you guys need a requirements analyst to step in the middle here. Deciding on a broswer specification & resolution that you'll conform to is a fair thing to ask, I think. Just assuming that 'most' users will have wide screen is not enough for most apps. Seems like she'd be hard pressed to explain why she can't redesign her banner to be smaller & fit the desired size.

I think that user will absolutely notice the horizontal scroll bar and be annoyed by it. Because it's not something most users are used to seeing (can't think of any major sites that have one), they'd have (in effect) learn something new to use your site, which is not good. They should be able to look at a site and be able to use it right away, not spend a few seconds figuring out that the scroll bar doesn't show you any new content, just the additional graphics from the header - those few seconds are where you lose people.

I wonder also, if there's any section 508 guidance on horizontal scroll bars. That may not matter to you guys, but I'm developing gov't sites, so 508 is a big deal for us day to day. If you've got a user using just a keyboard or a screen reader, that scroll bar is more than just annoying.

Answer 4

Try these two points to convince her :

• Show her some data about most used browsers resolutions (still 20% internet users have 1024x768 screen resolution)

• Having some part of the website not visible when the page is loaded is not "user-friendly" (user can miss some critical information)

Answer 5

Point her to Nielsen - on of the most famous and top level web usability experts.

"Horizontal Scrolling" is error #3 in "Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes of 2002" article

Also, point out (not sure if Nielsen does) that vast majority of mice don't have horizontal scroll wheels (that was a point made in comments of an article discussing Nielsen's article).

Also, do the usual UI thing - TEST!

Pick 5 random people who ideally match the desired user profile. Ask them to use the mock-up with and without warning and observe which one's easier/faster (and ask, but also obseve without asking)

Answer 6

Almost everybody has a wheel mouse now, but only a very few people have wheel mice that side scroll. And even fewer people even know wheels can side scroll!

Let her chew on that.