Paging buttons position – Top, Bottom or both?
The question is on where to place the paging buttons on a catalog page. We have some basic choices here.
- Only on bottom.
- Both on bottom and on the top.
The obvious argument to place it only on the bottom of the page is to force your user to see your entire catalog first, then to move to the next page. Also is you see the major web sites, like amazon, ebay and other similar, they have place the paging only on bottom of the page.
But in the previous year's major sites have place the paging on both, on top and on the bottom.
The argument to place it also on the top of the catalog page is to help the user, after is scroll down, to scroll again up, see second time some line that have keep in mine, and then move to the next page with out the need to scroll again down.
The question is – its better for the user to have it on both places or not. Maybe some sites need to force the user to scroll down and up again and that’s their goal, to see as much as possible, but it is good for a user or make him leave the site is you make him frustrate by up and down.
One alternative that I have think about is to have the upper paging buttons hidden, when the user is scroll down you make it visible, and if the user come up again its shown, that way you force your user to see the entire catalog first before move to the next page, but keep it on both.