Consider also that computer screens, up until the past 5 years, were all 4:3. That, coupled with low resolutions (640×480!) made designing anything of width, difficult. The browser was forced to provide a horizontal scroll bar if the width of the page was wider than the screen resolution of the computer on which the page was being viewed.

Then there was the introduction of scroll bars inside windows that already had scroll bars. This created (and still does) confusion for the end-user.

You are correct Brian. There are many valid needs for horizontal scrolling. With the implementation of new technology and wider screens, horizontal scrolling is no longer a “bad” thing.

What IS bad is poor implementation of horizontal scrolling.

No doubt she is a true “digital native”.. I truly wonder what the future holds for them!

It will be very hands-on. We will design together. We will write code together. We will laugh at funny slides together. We will mercilessly beat a piñata in the likeness of your most despised politician and/or celebrity until tasty, sweet, sugar-free treats fall out.* Oh, and we will play games. You won’t even realize you’re learning!

* probably not really, unless you bring said piñata full of treats

I had experience designing a seat map of an aircraft in a Web check-in application. For large aircraft such as the 747 model, it is almost impossible to display a long airplane without some kind of scrolling. One requirement was to place the aircraft seat map horizontally on the screen. Since the width of most large aircraft is greater than the screen width, I chose to use horizontal scrolling to allow users to move left and right to see all the seats on the seat map. No users have complained about the horizontal scrolling.

Since either vertical or horizontal scrolling can be used in design, the key is to understand when to use which type of scrolling and how to use it effectively.

Brian, thanks for offering your thoughts on using horizontal scrolling.

Great job!

One thing that might help me feel better about horizontal scrolling is if the scroll bar / dragger / handle is “fatter” than usual. It would give me more confidence that I can quickly select it and move it with accuracy.

Also, I wonder if anyone has experimented with moving the scroll bar to the top of the screen, for horizontal scrolling? I don’t even know if this is technically possible with modern browsers (maybe there is some fancy javascript trick to pull this off?) I would be interested to see usability studies if so. It would be unconventional, but we don’t know if it’s more usable until we try it out.

Another things to consider (for non-touch devices) is the type of input device and how people use it. I have long felt that scrolling horizontally with a mouse is more difficult than with my input device of choice, a trackball. With the trackball, I just roll my thumb left to right, instead of awkwardly moving my entire wrist. Then there are trackpads and trackballs, which all require different kinds of motions to scroll. Something to look at.

Great article, Brian!