About modern web design and the “Up” button

Today's “Business Lynch” reminded me that I have long wanted to express my thoughts on the current state of web design, in particular, on the “Up” button.

Web design is sick. Developers turn sites into web applications that work normally only in browsers that are correct from their point of view. Everywhere floating elements that are sure to leave somewhere on the mobile device and block something. Infinite scrolling is sometimes screwed to the site so thoughtlessly that in order to get to the links in the basement, you have to convulsively hammer the End button (just like a quick time event in games). On a mobile device, using the full version of the site with all these “facilities” is impossible, and the developers make a cut-down version of the site, calling it “adaptive design”, “responsive design” and “this-enaser-marketing-bullshit-inglish-design "- in essence, these are WAP-sites in a new guise. Moreover, this trimmed version is also imposed on the user. And God forbid, the site has a mobile application: at best, you will see a joyful message about it on the whole screen, and at worst, without asking you, you will be redirected to the App Store or Google Play, and nobody cares that you have logged in. to the site by search results and are not going to constantly visit it.


For example, no need to go far
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Someday, I hope, all this will go away, as the screensavers on the websites, inappropriate use of Flash, the tag cloud have gone. The Internet will once again be united, the websites will look the same on a computer and a dishwasher, the problem of displaying on different screens will be solved with a “rubber” design (they will come up with a new marketing term and present it as something new), and instead of individual mobile applications for websites There will come a uniform format like RSS embedded in the system. By the way, imagine how great it will be: by pressing a single button, you can add any website that supports this function to your phone, read it in a convenient format (including readability offline! Goodbye Readability!) And receive notifications.

But what about the up button? Is this a childhood illness or a new useful interface element that will be implemented at the browser level? To understand, you need to understand the reason for its appearance. The reason is that the browser interfaces do not allow you to quickly go to the top of the page. Web developers are trying at the site level to solve the problem of the browser interface or even the operating system. Like or not?

In fact, there is simply no problem. On the computer keyboard, there are Home and End keys that move to the beginning or end of the page. On the Mac, in addition to these keys, there are corresponding gestures (they corrected me for not. - O.). In iOS, you need to touch the top bar to scroll up. In Android, it seems, there is also something similar (apparently, too, no. My apologies. - O.). These methods work everywhere, and the user who is accustomed to them will click Home more quickly than they will remember if there is a “Up” button on this particular site. And even if the problem was, solving it at the site level is wildness.

It seems to me that the real reason for the appearance of the “Up” button is low computer literacy. Many users do not even suspect that the mouse wheel can be pressed, and the assignment of strange keyboard keys to them is a secret behind them. For them (and maybe even them) a “Up” button was invented. By the way, for the same reason, in the Chinese web, it is accepted that all links open in new windows. That's what you can get if you indulge in illiteracy.

But, after all, even on Habré there is a “Up” button, doesn’t everyone on Habré use the magic keys and their combinations?

Maybe I'm wrong, and many people find this button right. But one thing is clear: as long as it is implemented at the level of individual sites, there is little sense from it. If you are not yet ready to abandon the "Up" button, then at least add the inscription "Home" to it to remind users of this wonderful key. Take at least a small step towards the best Internet.