Auto scroll: a solution
Solving the problems of auto scroll
This is part 3 of 3 of my series on auto scroll where I will demonstrate a new way to automatically scroll through feeds that addresses the previously discussed problems.
In part 1, I looked at current products that featured auto scroll.
In part 2, I analyzed the interaction of manually scrolling through any feed like Twitter or Facebook.
Solution
Here is a quick demo of the solution.
After analyzing the specific auto scroll interaction, I started thinking of ways to improve it. While skimming through Twitter, I wished that the content would just keep scrolling. I decided that the simplest and most intuitive way to set the scroll speed is by … scrolling! During the natural scroll gesture, a user already implicitly sets a scroll speed on the content. However, current OSes gradually bring the scroll speed to zero. I decided to simply cut out that deceleration step. My friend, Kurt Werner, helped me add the ‘physical bounce’ back into the auto scroll through an exponentially decaying speed in addition to the auto scroll speed.
Next up, what to do when something catches your eye? Previously, since we had breaks in between performing the scroll gestures, if something caught our eye, we would pause and decide if we wanted to engage. In my implementation, you do this via tilt. If something catches your eye, you slow down by slightly tilting the device towards you and vice versa.
Hence, Naturally scroll to start auto scroll. Tilt the device to adjust speed. Tap to stop and engage with the content. And repeat.
Having the screen continuously scroll also allows your eye to be looking at a just a fixed portion of the screen. This reminded me of Spritz. You might remember it from the article titled “This Insane New App will allow you to read novels in under 90 minutes”.
Thanks for reading through the series! I will be packaging the new auto scroll interaction in my new app, Tiltelator, where you can scroll through Instagram. Twitter and Facebook support is coming soon.
Say hello on Twitter! I’d love to hear what you think of the current products, my analysis of the interaction, or my solution. Let me know if you’d like me to notify you when the app is released.
