Despite being a heavy cell phone user for more than 25 years, it only recently occurred to me that vertical navigation on most phones is inverted when compared to traditional computers. You swipe down to navigate upward, and up to navigate downward. I recently spent time using a MacBook, which apparently defaults to this “natural” scrolling (mobile-style), and I was completely thrown off by it.
I’ve been using natural scrolling on a couple of my own desktops ever since, mostly as a mental exercise, and I wondered…how many of you folks prefer this method?
I hate “natural” scrolling but I understand that it’s only because I’ve been conditioned for decades with the traditional desktop scrolling method. It’s not “better”, it’s just not worth the effort to retrain myself for something that is merely equivalent.
UI design should not be dictated by what people learned on decades-old systems. It should be designed just as much for new users. So even though I personally hate it, I think it’s a reasonable default.
I remember when I first started using GUIs, the scrolling direction seemed counterintuitive. As I introduced beginners to computing in the 90s, I saw many with the same confusion at first. “Why does it move up when I press down?” Everyone got used to it pretty quickly, but that doesn’t make it “right”.
Yep, I also assume that’s why natural scrolling is called natural. Everyone here was forced to learn traditional scrolling due to historical reasons that someone else pointed out. Now everyone thinks that’s natural, even though that’s not the case. An acquired taste/preference.
Desktop environments should default to natural scrolling, but provide the option to use traditional scrolling, so that everyone is happy, but traditional scrolling dies out when everyone here is dead for the sake of people who’re learning how to use computers today.