Canonical intelligently reinvents the scrollbar for Ubuntu

[ Thanks to An Anonymous
Reader for this link. ]

“Graphical user interfaces on the PC are a pretty
standard affair when it comes to interaction. They all have windows
you can open, close, resize, and move around. There’s minimize,
maximize, and close buttons, toolbars, scrollbars, and menu
systems. We all know how to use them and rely on them for
navigation everyday.

“With the advent of mobile devices and touchscreens some of
those interaction methods have had to be rethought due to screen
size limitations and a lack of keyboard or mouse input. One of
those interactions is page or window scrolling using a scrollbar.
You simply don’t need them on a touchscreen device as it is easier
and quicker to touch and drag anywhere on the display instead.

“Such a lack of scrollbars gave the design team at Canonical an
idea. Could they remove the permanent scrollbars at the edge of
windows in Ubuntu to free up more space for content while still
allowing them to work with a cursor? The answer was a definite yes,
and the re-design is now being experimented with.”

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