Infinite Scroll Usability Problem

I hate infinite scroll because I am a maximizer and can never get to a satisfactory ‘end’ point. Obviously my personal preference does not represent all users and this is a feature that is being used more and more on B2C websites. Before you decide whether or not to use it, consider the user intent on the page in question. The quick rule of thumb is to not use this feature if your website is task based, infinite scrolling works best for browsing behavior. See Further Reading for great articles on this.

If you do choose to use infinite scroll, there is a common usability setback that is universally frustrating (not just to me) – unreachable footers. This is when you load the site and initially you can see the footer and may even see information you want/need, but when you go to scroll down to click -surprise- it scrolls off the screen. You can see an example at http://elitedaily.com/. This is pretty infuriating as a user, so please people, if you are going to have infinite scrolling- think about how the site footer is going to work in that paradigm. A couple of options to consider are making it sticky or not having one at all. Please feel free to share creative workarounds in the comments.

Further Reading: