Is infinite scroll always better?

No; for comparing or refinding, page numbers or load more work better.

How many numbers on mobile?

A few around the current page plus prev/next.

Pagination UX

⚙️ Engineering & Technology By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated October 27, 2026

Pagination shows many items in fixed-size pages users can move between.

Contents

1. Three approaches
2. Designing for mobile
3. Position, search and accessibility
4. FAQ
5. References

Three approaches

Page numbers aid refinding; load-more fetches on demand; infinite scroll suits browsing but hides footers and loses place. People trust top results (Pan et al., 2007), so first-screen ranking matters most.

Designing for mobile

Make prev/next large (Parhi et al., 2006) and show only nearby numbers, since fewer choices are faster (Hick, 1952). Show a progress indicator immediately on load more (Miller, 1968) and meet touch target sizes.

Position, search and accessibility

Return users to the same page and scroll position. Google recommends unique URLs per page (Google Search Central, n.d.). Mark the current page with aria-current (MDN, n.d.) and move focus to the list start per WCAG 2.2 (W3C, 2023) 2.4.3.

FAQ

Is infinite scroll always better?: No; for comparing or refinding, page numbers or load more work better.
How many numbers on mobile?: A few around the current page plus prev/next.

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-27

References

Google Search Central. (n.d.). Pagination, incremental page loading, and their impact on Google Search. Unique URLs per page.
Pan, B., Hembrooke, H., Joachims, T., Lorigo, L., Gay, G., & Granka, L. (2007). In Google we trust: Users' decisions on rank, position, and relevance. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(3), 801–823. Position bias in results.
Hick, W. E. (1952). On the rate of gain of information. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 4(1), 11–26. How many page numbers to show.
Miller, R. B. (1968). Response time in man-computer conversational transactions. In Proceedings of the December 9–11, 1968, Fall Joint Computer Conference, Part I (pp. 267–277). ACM. Loading response times.
MDN Web Docs. (n.d.). aria-current. Marking the current page.
Parhi, P., Karlson, A. K., & Bederson, B. B. (2006). Target size study for one-handed thumb use on small touchscreen devices. In Proceedings of MobileHCI 2006 (pp. 203–210). ACM. Large prev/next buttons.
World Wide Web Consortium. (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. Criteria 2.4.3 and 2.4.4.

Reports and materials that use this theory (Korean)

There are no materials dedicated to this theory yet, but you can search related reports in the CampusDown library (Korean).

Find more reports · Search '페이지네이션' on CampusDown →

Infinite ScrollA comparison of infinite scroll, pagination and load-more buttons: which fits browsing or goal-driven sites, position and footer problems, search indexing, stopping cues and ethics.⚙️ Engineering & Technology Progress IndicatorsProgress indicators are spinners, bars and step indicators that show work is under way. Covers response-time research, choosing types by wait length, percent-done effects, designs that shorten perceived time and common mistakes.⚙️ Engineering & Technology Touch Target SizeWhat touch target size means, the 9 mm research, 44pt and 48dp platform guidelines, the WCAG 2.2 target-size criteria, the fat-finger problem and why spacing matters as much as size.⚙️ Engineering & Technology AI Search Algorithms: A* and MinimaxAI search algorithms explained: state-space search, breadth-first and depth-first search, Dijkstra, heuristics and A* (admissibility, consistency), game trees, minimax and alpha-beta pruning, based on the original papers.⚙️ Engineering & Technology

Latest ArticlesView all ›

New guides for college study and assignments (Korean)

This article was last updated on October 27, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.