Design Pagination Versus Infinite Scroll

Navigation & IA · pagination, search, performance

Updated 2026-07-28

Choose from the task, not from fashion. Browsing for discovery suits continuous loading, and searching for a specific item suits pages you can jump between.
Use pagination when users need to:

Use continuous loading when the content is an endless feed with no natural end and no need to count.
Consider the middle option of a load-more button. It keeps the scroll position predictable, keeps the footer reachable, and still avoids page reloads.
Never lose the footer. Content that appends forever puts support links, legal pages, and settings permanently out of reach.
Keep the position in the address either way. A page number or an offset means a shared link opens the same view.
Show progress against the whole. "60 of 1,240" tells the user whether to keep scrolling or refine their filters, and a bare list never does.
Handle changing data. Items inserted or removed while paging cause duplicates and skips, so page from a stable cursor rather than a numeric offset.

The wrong choice here is not a style mistake, it is the reason people cannot find something they know they saw.